Question

A local manufacturing company builds two products on the same production line that consists of seven workstations. The times in hours and process stations are listed below. Process 1 Process 2 Process 3 Process 4 Process 5 Process 6 Process 7 Product A 0.25 1.75 1.0 1.5 1.5 2.75 0.25 Product B 0.25 0.75 0.5 1.5 0.5 0.75 0.25 The standard times for Product A is 9.0 hours and Product B is 4.5 hours. The company averages 22 units of Product A and 55 units of Product B per month. The company’s typical month is 22 days. Currently the production line is in a straight line configuration but management read a study that said cellular manufacturing is a better solution. Specifically they are interested in a U-shaped cell. They have approached you to setup the cellular work cell and determine how many workers will be needed. Before they implement this U-shaped cell, write a memo that explains the benefits of the cellular design over the current straight line layout and whether or not they should implement the cellular layout. Include how many employees are needed including the calculations, which processes would be worked by each employee, how many workstations are needed, and how the workstations should be arranged.

Answer 1

Cellular Manufacturing/ One Piece Flow Production System:

There are certain goals that Cellular Manufactruing would aim to achieve:

1. To move as quickly as Possible.
2. Make a wide variety of similar products.
3. Making as little waste as possible.

In the assembly Line Multiple cells are used. Each cell comprises of one or more machnies which accomplishes a certain task. The product moves from one cell to the next , each station completing part of the manufacuring process.

U-Shaped design is given to these Cells because this allows for the Supervisor to move Less and have the ability to more readily watch over the entire process.

A cell is created by consolidating the processes required tp create a specific output . such as part or set a set of instructions.

Reduction in the extra steps are done in the process of creating the specific output and facilitate quick identofication of problems of Problems and encourage communication of employees within the cell in order to resolve issues that arise quickly.

Implementation Process:

I. Grouping of Parts on the basis of similarity into Families.
II. Systematic Analysis of each family must be performed. in the form of Producation Flow Analysis (PFA) for manufacturing families.

Benefits of Cellular Manufacturing:

1. Scattered Processes are Merged to form short focused path in concentrated places.
2. Reduction in :

a. Flow Time
b. Flow DIstance
c. Floor Space
d. Inventory
e. Handling
f. Scheduling Transactions
g. Scrap and Rework (due to quick discovery of non-conformities)

3. Simplified , Higher Validity Costing
4. Quality Controls as Cells which are underperforming in eithe volume or quality can be easily identified and targeted for improvement
5. Small structure improves the group as a whole and scales the Manufacturing Process down to a more manageable level of workers.

How Cellular Manufacturing affects this Manufacturing Company ?

As can vbe see from the question the Local Manufacturing cuurently employs Straihg Line System of Work which illustrates that:

First Product A and then Product B will be manufactured going through the Same Workstatiion from 1-7.
Therefore the company should :

1. The Company should merge production of Product A and Product B into a family.
2. This needs to be done for each and every Workstation.
3. Product A and Product B both needs Process 1 -7 , so they should be grouped and placed at the initial stateg of a U shaped Cell.
4. Like above all other workstations/processes will be placed in a U shaped manner.
5. Then each workstation can be assigned to a single employee to supervise it. So there will be a requirement of 7 employees.

6. The Problem comes with the Bottlenecks i.e. dissimilarity in Process Time for differene Products before moving on to another process.

7. By going through the Cellular Manufacturing Process ,

In 9 Hours if Both Product A and Product B are produced simulatneously moving from one workstation to another arranged in Cell
1 unit of Product A will be Manufactured.
1.5 unit of Product B will be Mnaufactured,

Therefore by taking STandard time of 13.5 hours Per Day
1.5 unit of Product A will be manufactured.
2.25 unit of Product B will be manufactured.

Total Production in 22 days:

Product A : 1.5 * 22 = 33 units
Product B : 2025 * 22 = 49.5 units

There will be overall increase in Production by 5.5 units through implementation of Cellular Manufacturing.