How is your manufacturing process organised? Is it organised as Batch and Queue with clusters of common workstations, with no organised product flow and no identifiable flow paths? Does this result in frequent back orders with lots of reports but no useful information? Must you wait until month end to see how you are doing? Do problems linger and not dealt with in a timely manner? Are there lots of complaints about forecast inaccuracies?
Cellular manufacturing is the opposite of mass production with batch and queues. In cellular manufacturing each cell produces a product family employing common materials, tooling, set-up procedures, cycle time, etc. Ideally, management is organised by value stream and one person has accountability for the product family.
Cells are flexible to allow for changes in volume and product mix, they facilitate flow in and out of the cell and fosters cooperation and good communication between team members. In a cellular organisation, data is gathered in the cell and used daily to improve. You know at any time whether you are winning or losing and what needs to improve. Problems are resolved quickly by the lowest level employee possible and you produce today what you sold yesterday, every day, resulting in nearly100% service levels.
Cells are created in a workplace to facilitate flow. This is accomplished by bringing together operations, machines and the people involved in a processing sequence of a products natural flow and grouping them close to one another. These cells are used to improve many factors in a manufacturing setting by allowing one-piece flow to occur.
One-piece flow is a condition that exists when products move through a manufacturing process one unit at a time, at a rate determined by the needs of the customer. One-piece flow focuses on flow efficiency rather than on resource efficiency.
When implementing cellular manufacturing it is important to, (1) Analyse & document the current process, (2) Define the product family that the cell will produce and calculate the TAKT Time for the cell, (3) Design the cell with flexible output rates to match changes in demand, (4) Balance the work to create flow between workstations that meets demand constraints, (5) Design the cell for ergonomics, (6) Cross train team members to standardised work, (7) Develop simple methods to track quality, productivity, and safety in the cell every day (8) Implement, test, and improve the cell through continuous improvement.
Avoid building monuments (equipment or processes that cannot easily be moved or right-sized for cells). Make utilities (electrical, compressed air, water, gas) connections flexible so equipment can be relocated easily.
In today's highly competitive environment, implementing a lean culture in your business has never been more important.
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