An investigation into the application of group technology in advanced manufacturing systems

Presented by: Yaar Levent Koaa

Group Technology

A manuf. philosophy in which similar parts are identified and grouped together to take advantage of their similarities in design and manuf. A concept to increase prodn efficieny by grouping various parts and products with similar design and/or production processes

Group Technology

A theory of management based on the principle that similar things should be done similarly. These similar things include:
product design process planning fabrication assembly production control

Benefits of GT

Product design Tooling and setups Material handling Prodn and inventory control Process planning Employee satisfaction

GT Planning

Coding

specification of knowledge concerning the similarities between parts

Classification (group formation)

The use of part codes and other information to assign parts to families

Layout

Physical placement of machines on the shop floor

Coding structures

Monocodes (hierarchical) Polycodes (chain-type) Mixed-codes

Layout

GT can be viewed as an attempt to obtain the advantages of flow line systems in environments previously ruled by job shop procedures Thus 3 types of group layout arise
GT flowline GT cell GT center

Literature review

Most of the research available deals with GT models and techniques Very little attention given to practical issues and GT applications

Literature review

Design-oriented approaches Visiual inspection Part coding and classification analysis (PCA)

Literature review

Production-oriented approaches Array based methods Hierarchical and non-hierarchical methods Heuristics Mathematical programming models

Literature review

GT clustering methods Sequential decision making processes Mathematical programming models Simulation Network theory Fuzzy theory Heuristics AI and expert systems

Literature review

GT clustering methods dominate Clustering methods do not consider many operational and technological constraints as copmpared to MP MP limited to problem size

Literature review

Many subjective factors from realistic situations not included anyway Simulational models, fuzzy theory, AI and expert systems offered for realistic constraints Nevertheless, human factors, behavioral and managerial issues

Some applications

NTI Deere & Co. Both cases point out to the benefits of GT if well applied

Scope of GT in advanced manufacturing systems

GT facilitates JIT which requires:

Simple prodn line with kanban material flow Setup reduction Elemination of all waste from WIP to scrap and rework U-shaped layout

Scope of GT in advanced manufacturing systems

Process similarity and product flexibility when designing cells for FMS AGVs must also be considered Interactions between cells must be considered OPT can be used to eleminate bottleneck operations in JIT and FMS.

Further research

Reducing the gap between theory and practice is crucial Comparison of current cell formation procedures Accurate similarity measures Techniques that consider batch size, processing and setup time when selecting parts Aspects such as capacity integration between various machines in resource grouping

Further research

Aspect of grouping workers Other associated resources such as tools, jugs, ixtures and pallets when grouping parts and machines Models to find the optimum flexibility when designing FMS cells Application of recent technologies such as AI