In today’s business world, competitiveness defines an industry leader. The drive toward maximum efficiency is constantly at the forefront of such companies’ objectives.
Managers across the country are striving to adopt lean manufacturing practices to help address worries about their bottom line. Cellular Manufacturing is one staple of lean manufacturing.
Cellular Manufacturing is an approach that helps build a variety of products with as little waste as possible. A cell is a group of workstations, machine tools, or equipment arranged to create a smooth flow so families of parts can be processed progressively from one workstation to another without waiting for a batch to be completed or requiring additional handling between operations.
Put simply, cellular manufacturing groups together machinery and a small team of staff, directed by a team leader, so all the work on a product or part can be accomplished in the same cell eliminating resources that do not add value to the product.
Benefits of cellular manufacturing include:
1) higher production efficiency;
2) elimination of waste;
3) reduced inventory levels;
4) optimized use of floor space;
5) shorter production cycle times;
6) higher effective manufacturing capacity; and
7) improved customer response time. As a result, the over-all production cost becomes lower and profits become greater.
