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Celluar Manufacturing

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Submitted By rw121592
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Pages 3
Amanda Alt
Sarah McCauley
Kevin Randles
Kexin Kie
Ranesha Williams

Cellular Manufacturing

A manufacturing cell is a grouping of all the resources that are required to manufacture a part of a product. This includes the people, supplies, machines, tools and the equipment. The cell resources are arranged in close proximity to enhance communication and allow everyone to see what is going on in their particular part of the job. There are two types of cells and they are Product Cell and Process Cell. A product cell provides a finished product to one or to a few customers and team members typically assemble, test, package, and even ship the product. A process cell services multiple customers and completes multiple operations on a variety of products. There are several benefits of manufacturing cells. They allow you to product what is needed with minimum materials, equipment, labor, time and space. This all in all typically lowers operating costs. A cell has a simple and direct routing between operations which ultimately reduces leadtimes. Cells can also help eliminate waste by reducing excess inventory. Cells also reduce the waiting time for operators. They do not have to wait for supplies or tools as they are readily available at the cell. Workers will benefit from not needing to move throughout the plant because everything they need to do their job is kept in the cell. In-plant transportation is also reduced, as there is no need to truck parts from department to department. Over-processing is eliminated because unnecessary operations (such as packing and unpacking for in-plant transportation) will be eliminated in a cellular structure.
Cellular manufacturing requires physical and mental shifts in how to create a specific process rather than producing multiple parts before sending them on to the next machine in the assembly process-economies of scale-the goal is to move products through the entire process one piece at a time, at a rate predicated on the flow of customers' orders. Cellular manufacturing is also being viewed as potentially beneficial to the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, because cellular manufacturing helps eliminate overproduction and reduce waste, it can have an impact on the environment. Allowing workers to stop their production when defects occur prevents wasted materials and time. Also, reducing defects has several environmental benefits such as “Fewer defects decreases the number of products that must be scrapped; Fewer defects also means that the raw materials, energy, and resulting waste associated with the scrap are eliminated; Fewer defects decreases the amount of energy, raw material, and waste used or generated to fix defective products that can be re-worked.”
“At Lincoln Electric (Cleveland) a manufacturer of arc welding machines, cellular manufacturing has taken on the form of using carts to replace assembly lines."We used to have three different products running on a line with six or eight assemblers," says Tom Soster, manufacturing engineering manager. "Because we could only run one type of product at a time, it seemed like no matter what we were making, it wasn't what we were selling."”
In order for Lincoln Electric to solve their problem with the assembly line, they replaced it with carts that permit each assembler to build an individual welder on a cart. They stated that one benefit of this new cellular manufacturing process is that it was flexible and accommodated spikes in the ordering process. This resulted in lowering inventory in the warehouse and worked as a quick response to customers’ needs.
Cellular manufacturing should be thought of as an operational strategy, not as a solution to manufacturing troubles. It can provide flexibility and allow a company to vary its product type in response to customer demands. Experts do suggest thinking in terms of how to reduce the time it takes a single product to get through the manufacturing process, rather than thinking in terms of how many items can be produced in a given time frame.

References:
"Benefits of Cellular Manufacturing." Benefits of Cellular Manufacturing. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://mhlnews.com/facilities-management/benefits-cellular-manufacturing>.
"Cellular Manufacturing Can Help You.": Modern Machine Shop. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.mmsonline.com/columns/cellular-manufacturing-can-help-you>.

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