Misr International Technological University

Faculty of Industry and Energy Technology in Fayoum

Bachelor of Technology in Industrial Automation

Advanced manufacturing systems

(TP_12)
Lecture 04
Dr. Sabry Said Youssef
Assistant professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Fayoum University
 Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing

 Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing

 Group Technology

 Cellular Manufacturing
 Group technology (GT) is a manufacturing philosophy in which similar parts are
identified and grouped together to take advantage of their similarities in design and
production.

 Similar parts are arranged into part families, where each part family possesses
similar design and/or manufacturing characteristics.

 The efficiencies are generally achieved by arranging the production equipment into
cells (machine groups) to facilitate work flow.

 Cellular manufacturing is Organizing the production equipment into machine cells,

where each cell specializes in the production of a part family
 There are two major tasks that a company must undertake when it implements

group technology. These tasks represent significant obstacles to the application of GT

1. Identifying the part families. If the plant makes 10,000 different parts, reviewing all

of the part drawings and grouping the parts into families is a substantial and time

consuming task.

2. Rearranging production machines into machine cells. It is time‐consuming and

costly to plan and accomplish this rearrangement, and the machines are not producing

during the changeover.

 Group technology and cellular manufacturing offer substantial benefits to companies
that have the perseverance to implement them:
1. GT promotes standardization of tooling, fixturing, and setups.
2. Material handling is reduced because the distances within a machine cell are much
shorter than within the entire factory.
3. Process planning and production scheduling are simplified.
4. Setup times are reduced, resulting in lower manufacturing lead times.
5. Work‐in‐process is reduced.
6. Worker satisfaction usually improves when workers collaborate in a GT cell.
7. Higher quality work is accomplished.
  A part family is a collection of parts that are similar either in geometric shape and
size or in the processing steps required in their manufacture.
 The parts within a family are different, but their similarities are close enough to
merit their inclusion as members of the part family.

Parts in Figure 18.1 are very similar in terms of geometric design, but
quite different in terms of manufacturing because of differences in
tolerances, production quantities, and materials. The parts shown in
Figure 18.2 constitute a part family in manufacturing, but their different
geometries make them appear quite different from a design viewpoint.
  The important manufacturing advantages of grouping work parts into families can be
explained with reference to Figures 18.3 and 18.4.

Figure 18.3 Process‐type plant layout. (Key: Turn =

turning, Mill = milling, Drll = drilling, Grnd = grinding,
Asby = assembly, Man = manual operation; arrows
indicate work flow through plant, and dashed lines
indicate separation of machines into departments.)

There is a lathe department, milling machine department,

drill press department, and so on.
To machine a given part, the workpiece must be This results in much material handling, large in‐process
transported between departments, perhaps visiting the inventories, many machine setups, long manufacturing lead
same department several times. times, and high cost
  The important manufacturing advantages of grouping work parts into families can be
explained with reference to Figures 18.3 and 18.4.

Figure 18.4 Group‐technology layout. (Key: Turn =

turning, Mill = milling, Drll = drilling, Grnd = grinding,
Asby = assembly, Man = manual operation; arrows
indicate work flow in machine cells.)

Each cell is organized to specialize in the production of a

particular part family.
Advantages are gained in the form of reduced workpiece
handling, lower setup times, fewer setups (in some cases,
no setup changeovers are necessary), less in‐process
inventory, and shorter lead times.
 The biggest single obstacle in changing over to group technology from a conventional

job shop is the problem of grouping the parts into families.

 There are three general methods for solving this problem. All three are time

consuming and involve the analysis of much data by properly trained personnel.

 The three methods are:

(1) intuitive grouping,

(2) parts classification and coding, and

(3) production flow analysis.

 This method is the most time consuming of the three. In parts classification and

coding, similarities among parts are identified and these similarities are related in a

coding system that usually includes both a part’s design and manufacturing

attributes.

 Parts classification and coding systems fall into one of three categories:

(1) Systems based on part design attributes,

(2) Systems based on part manufacturing attributes, and

(3) Systems based on both design and manufacturing features.

 Intuitive grouping involves the classification of parts into families by experienced

technical staff in the plant who examine either the physical parts or their

photographs and arrange them into groups having similar features.

 Two categories of part similarities can be distinguished:

(1) design attributes, which are concerned with part characteristics such as geometry,

size, and material, and

(2) Manufacturing attributes, which consider the processing steps required to make a

part.
A list of common design and manufacturing attributes 
 It is a method for identifying part families and associated machine groupings that
uses the information contained on production route sheets rather than part
drawings.
 Work parts with identical or similar routings are classified into part families. These
families can then be used to form logical machine cells in a group‐technology
layout.
 Since PFA uses manufacturing data rather than design data to identify part families,
it can overcome two possible anomalies that can occur in parts classification and
coding.
1. Parts whose basic geometries are quite different may nevertheless require similar
or even identical process routings.
2. Parts whose geometries are quite similar may nevertheless require process
routings that are quite different.
 Cellular manufacturing is an application of group technology in which dissimilar
machines or processes have been aggregated into cells, each of which is dedicated
to the production of a part or product family, or a limited group of families.
 Typical objectives in cellular manufacturing are similar to those of group technology:
1. To shorten manufacturing lead times by reducing setup, work‐part handling,
waiting times, and batch sizes.
2. To reduce work‐in‐process inventory. Smaller batch sizes and shorter lead times
reduce work‐in‐process.
3. To improve quality.
4. To simplify production scheduling.
5. To reduce setup times. This is accomplished by using group tooling (cutting tools,
jigs, and fixtures) that have been designed to process the part family
 Design of the machine cell is critical in cellular manufacturing. The cell design
determines to a great degree the performance of the cell.
 Machine cells for part family production can be classified according to the number
of machines and the degree to which the material flow is mechanized between
machines.
 Four common GT cell configurations are
(1) single‐machine cell,
(2) group‐machine cell with manual handling,
(3) group‐machine cell with semi‐integrated handling, and
(4) flexible manufacturing cell or flexible manufacturing system.
Single‐machine cell Group‐machine cell with manual handling
 Flexible manufacturing system

Group‐machine cell with semi‐integrated handling

The U‐shape is a popular configuration in
cellular manufacturing. Other GT layouts
In‐line
include in‐line, loop, and rectangular

Loop

U‐shape

Rectangular
Four types of part movement can be distinguished
in a mixed‐model part production system.
(1) repeat operation, in which a consecutive
operation is carried out on the same machine,
so that the part does not actually move;
(2) in‐sequence move, in which the part moves
forward from the current machine to an
immediate neighbor;
(3) bypassing move, in which the part moves
forward from the current machine to another
machine that is two or more machines ahead;
and
(4) backtracking move, in which the part moves
backward from the current machine to another
machine.
 Many quantitative techniques have been developed to deal with problems in group

technology and cellular manufacturing. Two problem areas are considered in this

section:

(1) grouping parts and machines into families, and

(2) arranging machines in a GT cell.

 Rank‐order Clustering technique

Example: Row & Column Masking Algorithm
Let's assign the codes below to represent all the Parts and Machines:
Example: Row & Column Masking Algorithm
Example: Row & Column Masking Algorithm
Example: Row & Column Masking Algorithm

P1 P6
M1 1 0
M4 1 1
M6 1 1
Example: Row & Column Masking Algorithm
Example: Row & Column Masking Algorithm
Example: Row & Column Masking Algorithm

P1 P6 P2 P3 P4 P5
M1 1 0 0 0 0 0
M4 1 1 0 0 0 0
M6 1 1 0 0 0 0
M2 0 0 1 1 1 0
M3 0 0 0 1 1 1
M5 0 0 1 1 0 0
M7 0 0 1 0 0 1
Example: Rank‐order Clustering Technique
Apply the rank‐order clustering technique to the part‐machine incidence matrix in 
the Table.
First Iteration (Step 1) in the Rank‐order Clustering Technique
Second Iteration (Steps 3 and 4) in the Rank‐order Clustering Technique
Final Solution