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

1. An investigation into the application of group technology in advanced manufacturing systems presented by Ağcagül YILMAZ

2. Content • Definition of Group Technology • Importance of Group Technology • Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems • Literature on Group Technology • Designing an Efficient GT cell • Further research areas

3. Definition of Group Technology • A total manufacturing concept requiring identification of part families and machine groups in order to exploit similarities and achieve economies in the entire manufacturing cycle. • It is traditional concept playing role in manufacturing concepts such as JIT,TQM,FMS,OPT and CIM.

4. Importance of Group Technology • Group Technology (GT) helps to achieve - a reduction in setups, - a reduction in inventory level, - a reduction in transportation time of goods, - an effective control of production , - reliable delivery time, -higher management efficiency, -cost savings in setup time,labour,tooling,machine tool maintenance and work-in-process, -integrating various functional areas by providing sufficient information etc.

5. Importance of Group Technology • In the past, it was a technique to reduce the cycle time of a product, in recent years it has been treated as a manufacturing strategy to improve the performance of the whole manufacturing system.

6. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems - Application of GT in the design of Cellular Manufacturing Systems (CMS) -CMS in job-shop or flow-shop type production used to minimize the total material handling costs due to inter-cellular moves, to maximize within-cell utilization of machines and to minimize the duplication of machines in different cells. -the aim is to identify of part families and machine groups based on the similarity of the characteristics.

7. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems • Application of GT in the design of Cellular Manufacturing Systems (CMS) - Resource grouping problem (consisting of partitioning machine tools of each machine type into machine groups so that each machine in a group do same set of operations) - Part-selection problem(involves grouping of parts into families for simultaneous processing using a set of tools)

8. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems - Application of GT in JIT manufacturing systems - GT used to form a family of parts and machines leading to simplified production line and standardized products. - Logistic support for employing pull/Kanban material flow in JIT. -Dynamic Process Quality Control established in GT cells w/min effort.

9. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems - Application of GT in CIM systems -facilitates the process of implementing CIM by simplifying information control required and providing necessary information about process and production flow - Classification and coding system is used to implement GT,with database designing CAD/CAM and development of CIM is done.

10. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems Low Usage of CC systems due to - Lack of the understanding the costs of complexity - Incomplete understanding of CC/GT -Organizational inability to implement CC - Fear of not being able to maintain system discipline over time, etc.(Tatikonda and Wemmerlov,1992)

11. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems - Application of GT in TQM systems -Coding and classification processes in GT generate data that can be used in quality function deployment (QFD) for improving quality and productivity.

12. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems - Application of GT in FMS systems - provides flexibility, - better communication and production control, - layout support for material handling purposes, -logistic support (reduction in skilled labour required)

13. Application of Group Technology in advanced production systems *** The details of the application of GT in JIT,TQM,CIM and FMS are presented in Figure-1.

14. Literature on Group Technology • Literature based on ; • GT Techniques, • Applications(little work on this), • General Frameworks, • Comparative Studies of GT methods Empirical Studies. Classification of available GT literature can be seen in Table-1

15. Literature on Group Technology • Most Models consider only geometrical configurations of parts, not other parameters such as batch size,process planning and volume of parts. • Literature ignores the variation in product mix,product desing,market situation,other technical factors. • Most GT Literatures on the techniques used in grouping of products and machines are based on the clustering and mathematical programming models.This can be seen in Table-2. • There is a need to develop GT models to consider the characteristics of JIT and FMS systems such as on-line scheduling,Kanban material flow,AGVS etc. • In Figure-2 Scope of GT applications in JIT and FMS can be seen

16. Designing an Efficient GT cell • It is not enough only to consider process similarity in FMS to have efficient GT cells.Product flexibility may be violated. • Influence of human factors • Layout and material handling systems • Interaction between cells • Application of GT in tool management in FMS • GT cells at supplier systems

17. Future Research Directions • Development of cell formation procedures based on objectives,environments,characteristics of a specific firm can be studied. • Human aspects of cellular manufacturing can be studied. • Grouping parts or machines requires consideration of other resources and storage systems. • Problems of poor implementation of GT can be studied. • Models must be developed for the application of GT in design and engineering,sales,marketing,purchasing,vendor selection and personnel. • More realistic criteria such as batch size,processing tim,setup time and human performance can be considered.

18. Future Research Directions • Developing models for solving the design problems • Developing planning and scheduling procedures for each class of GTs • studying interactions between GT and its environment • Experiment on the suitability for GT of the currently used tools and techniques

19. THANKS!