Lean Production

Week 6:
Cellular Manufacturing

Tran Van Ly
Industrial Engineering & Management
International University
Email: tvly@hcmiu.edu.vn
Room: A2-504 1
 Recall previous week
 Increased flexibility – much easier to slot in that
urgent order or to service multiple customers or
part numbers
 Reduced batch sizes – Shorter setup times allow
running smaller batches more often 
one-piece flow
 Reduced stock and WIP (Work in Progress)

2
 Recall previous week
 Improved quality, reduced waste as less
adjustment, problems in small batch

 Less space requirement as less inventory

Costs reduced and higher service

level
3
 Recall previous week
 Adapting to increased/decreased demand

 # of cycle/day;

 Production quantity/cycle

 Batch sizes

 Sequencing model
4
Recall previous week

5
 Learning Objectives

 One Piece Flow Flexibility

6
One Piece Flow
 One Piece Flow

 One-piece flow is the state that exists when

products move through a manufacturing process one
unit at a time, at a rate determined by the needs of
the customer
 The opposite of one-piece flow is large-lot production
 No items can move on to the next process until all

items in the lot have been processed

 The larger the lot, the longer the items sit and wait

between steps
 One-piece flow promote continuous flow of
products, with the least amount of delay and
waiting
 One-Piece Flow Vs. Large-Lot
 Lead time? Required resource for storage &
transportation? Quality control?

Islands

Connected islands

Connected islands with full control Cells (continuous flow)

 Lean production
 Goal:
- One piece flow
- Flexibility
 Approach:

Shojinka: Make workshop flexible by altering number of

workers as demand has changed
Prerequisite:
- Multi-skilled worker
- Standard operation routine: Continuously revised
- Suitable layout
Shojinka
 Processes and Operations
PROCESSES
 a continuous flow through which raw
materials are converted into finished
products in a series of operations.
 The focus is the path of the materials
as they are transformed into something
to sell.
 Manufacturing processes have four
basic types of steps or phases:
 Transformation – assembly,
machining
 Inspection – comparison to standard
 Transport – change of location
 Storage – waiting period
OPERATIONS
 An operation is any action
performed by workers or
machines on the materials.
 focuses on action.
 Operational improvements
focus on how specific actions
are carried out, and include
studying the motions required
for a specific action.
 1-2 Basic layouts
Lathe Milling Drilling

Job shop
Process layout

In

Flow shop/Product
layout
Out
 Comparison of Product
and Process Layouts
Note Product Process

 Description
Description  Sequential  Functional
arrangement of grouping of
activities activities
 Continuous, mass  Intermittent, job

 Type
Type of
of process
process
production, mainly shop, batch
assembly production, mainly
fabrication

 Product
Product  Standardized, made  Varied, made to
to stock order

 Demand
Demand  Stable  Fluctuating

 Volume
Volume  High  Low

 Equipment
Equipment  Special purpose  General purpose
 Comparison of Product
and Process Layouts
Note Product Process

 Workers
Workers  Limited skills  Varied skills

 Inventory
Inventory  Low in-process,  High in-process, low
high finished goods finished goods

 Storage
Storage space
space  Small  Large

 Material
Material handling
handling
Aisles
 Fixed path  Variable path

 Aisles

 Scheduling
Scheduling
(conveyor) (forklift)

 Layout
Layout decision
decision
 Narrow  Wide

 Goal
Goal  Part of balancing  Dynamic
 Line balancing  Machine location

 Advantage
Advantage  Equalize work at  Minimize material
each station handling cost
 Efficiency  Flexibility
Layout design

• Bird cage layout

(job shop)
• Isolated island
layout (flow shop)
• Linear layout (flow
shop)
 Production
balancing?
WIP?
Mutual relief
movement?
Reallocation of
operations?
 Proper layout for Lean
Manufacturing
 Flexibility (demand)
 Utilization of operators
 Minimize movement of operators

Cycle time is
adjusted to match
takt time by
changing worker
paths
 CMS and Group Technology
 CMS layout are based on recognizing similarities in
products – similarities in geometry, size, materials and
processing requirements
 This similar products are collected – “Grouped”
instead of being treated as individuals
 Leads to product families that visit similar equipment
and populate their ‘cells’ production schedule
 Simpler setups like in a Job shop can follow and the
workers become multifunctional and responsible for all
aspects of a product – and its quality
 Cells can be scheduled to produce synchronously
bringing the various sub-assemblies in as needed at
final assembly with greater variety built in
 High-Variety Production

Cellular manufacturing offers flexibility to

give customers the variety they want
 By grouping similar products into families
that can be processed on same equipment
in the same sequence
 Encourages companies to shorten
changeover time between products
 Eliminates a major reason for large-lot
production
 Cellular Layouts
1. Identify families of parts with similar flow
paths
2. Group machines into cells based on
part families
3. Arrange cells so material movement is
minimized
4. Locate large shared machines at point
of use
 Parts Families

A family of A family of related

similar parts grocery items
Original Process Layout

Assembly

4 6 7 9

5 8

2 10 12

1 3 11

A B C Raw materials

7-23
 Part Routing Matrix
 Identify families of parts with similar flow paths

Machines
Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A x x x x x
B x x x x
C x x x
D x x x x x
E x x x
F x x x
G x x x x
H x x x
 Reordered Routing Matrix
 Group machines into cells based on part families
Machines
Parts 1 2 4 8 10 3 6 9 5 7 11 12
A x x x x x
D x x x x x
F x x x
C x x x
G x x x x
B x x x x
H x x x
E x x x
 Revised Cellular Layout
 Arrange cells so material movement is minimized
Assembly

8 10 9 12

11
4 Cell 1 Cell 2 6 Cell 3
7

2 1 3 5

A C B
Raw materials
Example
 Multi-Functional Workers, and Job
Rotation
 Locate large shared machines at point of use
 Layout design
 Combined U-form line
 Production balancing WIP
 Mutual relief movement

 Reallocation of operations
 Efficiency of Line

Minimum number
Efficiency
of workstations

j j

t i t i

E = nC
i=1
N= i=1
Cd
a

where
ti = completion time for element i
j = number of work elements
n = actual number of workstations
Ca = actual cycle time
Cd = desired cycle time (takt time)
 Guideline for determining # of
operator in the cell
Remainder in # operators Guideline
required calculation
< 0.3 Do not add extra operator. Further reduce
wastes in incidental work
0.3-0.5 Do not add extra operator yet. Wait after 2
weeks of operation and kaizen
>0.5 Add extra operator if necessary
 Line Balancing Procedure
1. Draw and label a precedence diagram
2. Calculate desired cycle time (takt time) required for line
3. Calculate theoretical minimum number of workstations
4. Group elements into workstations, recognizing cycle
time and precedence constraints
5. Calculate efficiency of line
6. Determine if theoretical minimum number of
workstations or an acceptable efficiency level has been
reached. If not, go back to step 4.
 Line Balancing: Example

WORK ELEMENT PRECEDENCE TIME (MIN)

A Press out sheet of fruit — 0.1
B Cut into strips A 0.2
C Outline fun shapes A 0.4
D Roll up and package B, C 0.3

1. Design an assembly line with the fewest number of workstations

that will produce 6000 unit every 40-hour
2. Find Efficiency of your design
 Balancing U-Shaped Lines
Given this precedence diagram:
Takt time = 12 min A B C

D E

Activity Duration (min)

A 4
B 5
C 2
D 10
E 3

Design a line with the fewest number of workstations,

highest efficiency
 U-cell design - overview
What to produce, capacity, process, constraints, assumptions
U-cell design – Calculation
U-cell design – Revised
 Summary/Homework
Following is the forecast
Operating
Products Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
time (s)
A 90 17(*) 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17
B 60 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
C 120 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40
D 210 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
(*): in thousands

Design assembly line(s) based on the following inputs.

a) The line also can meet demand as demand goes up by 30%
b) To avoid ergonomics issues related to repetitiveness,
minimum cycle time of a workstation is not lower than 15
seconds.
c) Working time: 304 working days per year, 7 hours per day,
and 2 shifts per day.
 Summary/Homework
1) Select a representative product.
2) Design assembly lines which meet demand and use
minimum resources. Fill in the below table (please show your
work as well).
1 Takt rate (required pieces per hr)   3) If forecast
2 Takt time (sec)  
increases by
3 Total number of operators required  
4 Total number of workstations required  
20%, how many
5 Number of workstations per cell   extra operators
6 Number of cells   required per
7 Number of operators per cell   cell?
8 Cycle time per workstation (sec)  
9 Cycle time per operator (sec)  
10 Capacity per cell per hour (pcs/hr)  
11 Total capacity (pcs/hr)