The document discusses cellular manufacturing, which involves arranging equipment and workstations closely together to facilitate small lot, continuous flow production of a variety of low-demand products while maintaining productivity. Key aspects of cellular manufacturing include one-piece flow, multi-process handling within cells, near-zero transfer times between operations, modularity in process and product design, and arranging production flow within cells. The biggest challenges are dividing manufacturing systems into appropriate cells and addressing both technical issues related to equipment and "soft" issues related to management and corporate culture.

1. Topics on Quality, Lean
Manufacturing and Productivity
Improvement
CELLULAR
MANUFACTURING
(FLEXIBLE OPERATIONS)
Presented by
JORGE ROS

2. Cellular Manufacturing
Cellular Manufacturing is an approach
in which equipment and workstations
necessary to produce a product are
arranged closely together to facilitate
small lot continuous flow production.
The goal is to have the necessary
flexibility to produce a variety of low
demand products, while maintaining
the same productivity obtained with a
large scale production.
Picture from Wikipedia

3. Traditional Batch Processing

4. One Piece Flow
Handling items one at a time eliminates wastes inherent in batch production
and enables a balanced flow of work.

5. Multi-Process Handling

6. Multi-functional Workforce

7. Zero Op-to-Op Transfer Times
All the operations necessary to produce a component or subassembly
are performed in close proximity. Near zero operation-to-operation
transfer times are achieved.

8. Cellular Manufacturing
Cell designers achieve this through modularity
in both process design and product design.
The biggest challenge when implementing
cellular manufacturing in a company is dividing
the entire manufacturing system into cells.
The issues may be conceptually divided in the
"hard" issues of equipment, such as material
flow and layout, and the "soft" issues of
management, such as upskilling and corporate
culture.

9. Flow in a U-Cell
Equipment and Workstations used to produce are arranged to facilitate a
continuous production flow in small lots.
OUTPUT
Finished Station 5 Station 4
Goods
Station 3
EXAMPLE Work
Flow
INPUT
(Components Station 1 Station 2
and
Materials)

10. Example – Single Cell

11. Several Operators in Series
In a process with several operators, work is divided in small operations, so
that a group of operators team together to work at the same speed,
dividing the work load among them.

12. Cellular Lay Out

13. Combined Cellular Manufacturing

14. Pitfalls to avoid

15. Integrating Subassembly into Main Assembly

16. Implementing Flexible Operations