Computer-aided design (CAD) involves creating computer models defined by

geometrical parameters. These models typically appear on a computer

monitor as a three-dimensional representation of a part or a system of parts,

which can be readily altered by changing relevant parameters. CAD systems

enable designers to view objects under a wide variety of representations and

to test these objects by simulating real-world conditions.

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) uses geometrical design data to

control automated machinery. CAM systems are associated with computer

numerical control (CNC) or direct numerical control (DNC) systems. These

systems differ from older forms of numerical control (NC) in that geometrical

data are encoded mechanically. Since both CAD and CAM use computer-

based methods for encoding geometrical data, it is possible for the processes

of design and manufacture to be highly integrated. Computer-aided design

and manufacturing systems are commonly referred to as CAD/CAM.

THE ORIGINS OF CAD/CAM

CAD had its origins in three separate sources, which also serve to highlight

the basic operations that CAD systems provide. The first source of CAD

resulted from attempts to automate the drafting process. These developments

were pioneered by the General Motors Research Laboratories in the early

1960s. One of the important time-saving advantages of computer modeling

over traditional drafting methods is that the former can be quickly corrected

or manipulated by changing a model's parameters. The second source of

CAD was in the testing of designs by simulation. The use of computer

modeling to test products was pioneered by high-tech industries like

aerospace and semiconductors. The third source of CAD development

resulted from efforts to facilitate the flow from the design process to the

manufacturing process using numerical control (NC) technologies, which

enjoyed widespread use in many applications by the mid-1960s. It was this

source that resulted in the linkage between CAD and CAM. One of the most

important trends in CAD/CAM technologies is the ever-tighter integration

between the design and manufacturing stages of CAD/CAM-based

production processes.

The development of CAD and CAM and particularly the linkage between the

two overcame traditional NC shortcomings in expense, ease of use, and speed

by enabling the design and manufacture of a part to be undertaken using the

same system of encoding geometrical data. This innovation greatly shortened

the period between design and manufacture and greatly expanded the scope
of production processes for which automated machinery could be

economically used. Just as important, CAD/CAM gave the designer much

more direct control over the production process, creating the possibility of

completely integrated design and manufacturing processes.

The rapid growth in the use of CAD/CAM technologies after the early 1970s

was made possible by the development of mass-produced silicon chips and

the microprocessor, resulting in more readily affordable computers. As the

price of computers continued to decline and their processing power

improved, the use of CAD/CAM broadened from large firms using large-

scale mass production techniques to firms of all sizes. The scope of

operations to which CAD/CAM was applied broadened as well. In addition to

parts-shaping by traditional machine tool processes such as stamping,

drilling, milling, and grinding, CAD/CAM has come to be used by firms

involved in producing consumer electronics, electronic components, molded

plastics, and a host of other products. Computers are also used to control a

number of manufacturing processes (such as chemical processing) that are

not strictly defined as CAM because the control data are not based on

geometrical parameters.
Using CAD, it is possible to simulate in three dimensions the movement of a

part through a production process. This process can simulate feed rates,

angles and speeds of machine tools, the position of part-holding clamps, as

well as range and other constraints limiting the operations of a machine. The

continuing development of the simulation of various manufacturing processes

is one of the key means by which CAD and CAM systems are becoming

increasingly integrated. CAD/CAM systems also facilitate communication

among those involved in design, manufacturing, and other processes. This is

of particular importance when one firm contracts another to either design or

produce a component.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Modeling with CAD systems offers a number of advantages over traditional

drafting methods that use rulers, squares, and compasses. For example,

designs can be altered without erasing and redrawing. CAD systems also

offer "zoom" features analogous to a camera lens, whereby a designer can

magnify certain elements of a model to facilitate inspection. Computer

models are typically three dimensional and can be rotated on any axis, much

as one could rotate an actual three dimensional model in one's hand, enabling

the designer to gain a fuller sense of the object. CAD systems also lend
themselves to modeling cutaway drawings, in which the internal shape of a

part is revealed, and to illustrating the spatial relationships among a system of

parts.

To understand CAD it is also useful to understand what CAD cannot do.

CAD systems have no means of comprehending real-world concepts, such as

the nature of the object being designed or the function that object will serve.

CAD systems function by their capacity to codify geometrical concepts. Thus

the design process using CAD involves transferring a designer's idea into a

formal geometrical model. Efforts to develop computer-based "artificial

intelligence" (AI) have not yet succeeded in penetrating beyond the

mechanical—represented by geometrical (rule-based) modeling.

Other limitations to CAD are being addressed by research and development

in the field of expert systems. This field is derived from research done in AI.

One example of an expert system involves incorporating information about

the nature of materials—their weight, tensile strength, flexibility, and so on—

into CAD software. By including this and other information, the CAD system

could then "know" what an expert engineer knows when that engineer creates

a design. The system could then mimic the engineer's thought pattern and

actually "create" more of the design. Expert systems might involve the
implementation of more abstract principles, such as the nature of gravity and

friction, or the function and relation of commonly used parts, such as levers

or nuts and bolts. Expert systems might also come to change the way data are

stored and retrieved in CAD/CAM systems, supplanting the hierarchical

system with one that offers greater flexibility. Such futuristic concepts,

however, are all highly dependent on our abilities to analyze human decision

processes and to translate these into mechanical equivalents if possible.

One of the key areas of development in CAD technologies is the simulation

of performance. Among the most common types of simulation are testing for

response to stress and modeling the process by which a part might be

manufactured or the dynamic relationships among a system of parts. In stress

tests, model surfaces are shown by a grid or mesh, that distort as the part

comes under simulated physical or thermal stress. Dynamics tests function as

a complement or substitute for building working prototypes. The ease with

which a part's specifications can be changed facilitates the development of

optimal dynamic efficiencies, both as regards the functioning of a system of

parts and the manufacture of any given part. Simulation is also used in

electronic design automation, in which simulated flow of current through a

circuit enables the rapid testing of various component configurations.

The processes of design and manufacture are, in some sense, conceptually

separable. Yet the design process must be undertaken with an understanding

of the nature of the production process. It is necessary, for example, for a

designer to know the properties of the materials with which the part might be

built, the various techniques by which the part might be shaped, and the scale

of production that is economically viable. The conceptual overlap between

design and manufacture is suggestive of the potential benefits of CAD and

CAM and the reason they are generally considered together as a system.

Recent technical developments have fundamentally impacted the utility of

CAD/CAM systems. For example, the ever-increasing processing power of

personal computers has given them viability as a vehicle for CAD/CAM

application. Another important trend is toward the establishment of a single

CAD-CAM standard, so that different data packages can be exchanged

without manufacturing and delivery delays, unnecessary design revisions,

and other problems that continue to bedevil some CAD-CAM initiatives.

Finally, CAD-CAM software continues to evolve in such realms as visual

representation and integration of modeling and testing applications.

THE CASE FOR CAS AND CAS/CAM

A conceptually and functionally parallel development to CAD/CAM is CAS

or CASE, computer-aided software engineering. As defined by

SearchSMB.com in its article on "CASE," "CASE '¦ is the use of a computer-

assisted method to organize and control the development of software,

especially on large, complex projects involving many software components

and people." CASE dates back to the 1970s when computer companies began

to apply concepts from the CAD/CAM experience to introduce more

discipline into the software development process.

Another abbreviation inspired by the ubiquitous presence of CAD/CAM in

the manufacturing sector is CAS/CAM. This phrase stands for Computer-

Aided Selling/Computer-Aided Marketing software. In the case of CASE as

well as CAS/CAM, the core of such technologies is integration of work flows

and application of proven rules to a repeating process.

Databases in Manufacturing
Databases are the backbone of many manufacturing software information systems. It is in these
databases that information for each raw material, product, and components can be archived and
retrieved for further evaluation, tracking, and quality control in the manufacturing process. Usually
there are many databases in the manufacturing process in which they would become integrated with
one another. Primarily they can broken down into three major components in the manufacturing
databases. These are Supply Chain Databases, Production Item Databases, and Inventories Databases
Each and every one of these databases work together in order to have a fully integrated information
system.

Supply Chain Databases can come in many forms but it is the all-encompassing term used in the
database manufacturing. They include the production item database along with its manufacturing
execution system, the production items database, and the inventories of items database. All these
databases together along with customer requirements, purchase orders, and supplier management
form the supply chain databases and the management software. One of many supply chain databases
is made by oracle which is now being integrated into the cloud. Being integrated into the cloud
allows these databases to tap into the global supply databases of suppliers that are spread across
different countries and regions.

Production Item Databases are databases that are part of the production process. A good example of
this database is the bill of materials. The bill of materials is a list of raw materials. These items
usually include components, parts of the components or sub-components, and assemblies which are
all used to form the final product or end item. These parts that are contained in these databases and
provide integrated and intimate information for each part. These can include what kind of part, the
part number, the purpose of the part, what its made of, the dimensions of the part, its weight, and any
other factors that can help describe the part. Its database management system makes it easier to
determine which parts and components and what quantities are needed. They can also be used to
Production databases can be used to keep track of all the items that are needed.

It is usually integrated into production systems such as a manufacturing execution system. These
manufacturing execution systems provide tracking of real time changes in the productions process.
With the database involved it can help to reduce waste, and minimize scrap materials. It minimizes
the downtime that is involved in the manufacturing process by increasing the decision-making time
in ordering and valuing each part of the process. It can also offer insight into the trends of products
that are in stock and help control in its inventory.

Inventories of Items Databases are used for tracking of inventories, orders, delivers and sales. They
are also used for work orders. They are usually used in warehouses or in manufacturing locations to
keep track of all the items that are involved in the manufacturing process. Some of the advantages of
inventory databases include cost savings that eliminate unnecessary or underused parts. As well as
parts that most used which can be ordered right away. There is increased automation which increases
the efficiency and organizes the items in their perspective locations. Work orders can be used to
generate order fulfillments. These can be further broken down into categories such as an Engineer to
Order, build to order, and Assemble to order. An Engineer to order is a product that is entirely built
to custom design by the customer and their own specifications. Specifications made by the customer
is inputted into the database which then helps keep track of the custom specifications in case the
customer orders it again or there is a similar product and parts that can be used in the final product. A
build to order is a standard base design product that is further manufactured on top of a customer’s
specifications. Databases help ensure that base parts are in inventory and can be utilized to made the
final product.

Databases in manufacturing helps manage the parts, components, and inventories of specific
assemblies. It stores a large amount of information that is needed to provide the necessary
information for efficiency, automation, and quick decision making in the manufacturing process. The
supply chain database is the ecosystem that is used to provide the information about the whole
process of the manufacturing system. The inventories database is primarily used for the exact parts
and inventories of each part and what needs ordering. Together these systems help a business
maintain efficiencies in order to help it grow and maintain a competitive advantage.
Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) 
In straightforward terms, CIM is the technique of using computers to control an entire
production process. It’s commonly used by factories to automate functions such as
analysis, cost accounting, design, distribution, inventory control, planning and
purchasing.

These functions are often linked to a central, computer-controlled station to enable

efficient materials handling and management, while delivering direct control and
monitoring of all operations simultaneously. Essentially, every individual piece of a
manufacturing process including engineering, production and marketing is organized.

This infographic highlights 10 key functions of CIM:

 'Source: www.technologystudent.com'

What Are The Benefits Of CIM?

 'Computer-integrated manufacturing that works gets the thumbs up.'

The sole objective of computer-integrated manufacturing is to streamline production

processes, delivering the following benefits:

 Reduced costs – i.e. the cost of direct and indirect labour

 Improved scheduling flexibility

 Reduced downtime

 Maintaining correct inventory levels

Ultimately, the goal is to achieve maximum efficiency, closing those gaps that obstruct
productivity and result in the bottom-line taking a hit. Additionally, CIM plays a key role
in gathering relevant, real-time data from the production floor. For instance, to
optimize efficiency, CIM can monitor the operational performance of vital equipment.

Arguably the biggest benefit of CIM is the increase in output capacity it brings.
Manufacturing enterprises can go from concept to completion in rapid time, meaning
they can produce more in shorter timeframes, which has a positive impact on
profitability, customer retention and attracting new customers.

What Are The Challenges Of CIM?

 'One of the key challenges of computer-integrated manufacturing is damage prevention.'

Computers are prone to damage, especially in an industrial setting. The knock on

effects of computer failure, for an enterprise that relies solely on computers remaining
operational, can be catastrophic and result in:

 Extended periods of downtime

 Idle staff

 Reduced production

 Increased lead times

 Customer dissatisfaction

 Reputational damage

 Loss of market share

When integrated, CIM is responsible for the complete production process. With so much
riding on its performance, it’s baffling that many manufacturing firms fail to invest in
adequate protection for what is undoubtedly a capital asset.

For instance, specially designed environmental computer enclosures are readily

available and exist to protect CIM processes. They are a safe-haven for computers,
shielding against external elements such as dust, dirt and liquids and even forklift
trucks, just in case ‘Dave’ accidentally reverses into a computer that’s critical to a
production operation.

Another key challenge facing CIM is a skills shortage. Many manufacturing firms are
lacking skilled-technicians able to operate those systems crucial to CIM. In some
quarters, CIM has been slammed for causing jobs losses. In fact, it creates more jobs,
but there’s a lack of skills among the current manufacturing workforce, which makes
things slightly complicated.

That said, CIM represents an opportunity to upskill the current manufacturing

workforce. Ultimately, CIM can benefit manufacturing facilities two-fold:

 1) By improving the overall production process.

 2) By improving the skillset of the current workforce.
COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
A communication network is the pattern of directions in which information flows in the
organization. Channels of communication (networks by which information flows) are either
formal networks or informal networks. Formal networks follow the authority chain and are
limited to task-related communications. The informal network (grapevine) is free to move in
any direction, skip authority levels, and is as likely to satisfy group members' social needs
as it is to facilitate task accomplishments.

Types of Communication Networks in Organizations

Types of Communication Networks in Organizations is shown below
Chain Network
In chain network, communication travels up and down through the hierarchy. Each person
communicates with only the person directly above or below in terms of reporting
relationships. The chain network rigidly follows the formal chain of command.

Y Network Communication

Y Network
In the Y network, the flow of communication resembles an upside down Y; information
flows upward and downward through the hierarchy, widening to encompass the number of
employees reporting to a supervisor.

Wheel Network
In a wheel network, information flows to and from a single person. Employees in the group
communicate primarily with that person rather than with each other. Such a communication
network is a fast means of getting information to employees, since the person at the hub of
the wheel can do so directly and efficiently. The wheel network relies on the leader to act as
the central conduit (channel) for the entire group's communication.

The chain network, the Y network and the wheel network are fairly centralized in that most
messages must flow through a pivotal (essential, crucial) person in the network. In the
wheel network, the most centralized, all messages must flow through the individual at the
centre of the wheel. In the chain network, some members can communicate with more than
one member of the network, but the individual in the centre of the chain still tends to
emerge as the controller of the messages. In the Y network, the member at the fork of the
"Y" usually becomes the central person in the network.

Circle Network
In a circle network, employees communicate only with adjoining members of the
organization. The circle network is analogous to a group working in a physical arrangement
such that workers can communicate with their immediate neighbour but not with others in
the group.

All channel network communication examples

The All-Channel Network or the Star Network

In an all-channel network, communications flow upward, downward and laterally among all
members of the group. This pattern of communication supports an egalitarian, (equal,
unrestricted) participative culture and fosters (promote, cultivate) cross-functional efforts.

The all-channel network is best if you are concerned with having high member satisfaction.

The circle network and the all-channel network are more decentralized in that there is freer
communication among the various members. In the circle network, each member can
communicate with the individual on either side. The all-channel network is the most
decentralized of the networks; each member can communicate with any other member.

Group Technology and Productivity

Group technology is drawing increasing interest from manufacturers because of its many
applications for boosting productivity. GT is an approach to manufacturing that seeks to maximize
production efficiencies by grouping similar and recurring problems or tasks. Through a careful
examination of the many applications of GT, the authors show how it saves time, avoids
duplication, and facilitates easy and timely information retrieval and use. An important part of GT
is the use of a code that—like a library reference system—serves as an index to characteristics in
manufacturing, engineering, purchasing, resource planning, and sales to improve productivity in
each of these areas.

Introducing a new part into manufacturing can cost from $1,300 to $12,000, including expenses for
design, planning and control, and tools and fixtures.1 Clearly, if a company can reduce the number
of new parts it needs, it would realize large cost savings. Consider a company that typically
releases 2,000 new parts per year. If the company could substitute existing parts for only 10% of
these new parts, it could reap an annual saving ranging from a relatively modest $260,000 to a
quite substantial $2.4 million. But this saving hinges on one critical factor: the identification of
parts that can be used with or without modification to meet the designer’s need. A “group
technology” manufacturing data base offers great assistance in this identification process.

Group technology (GT) is a concept that currently is attracting a lot of attention from the
manufacturing community. The essence of GT is to capitalize on similarities in recurring tasks in
three ways:

 By performing similar activities together, thereby avoiding wasteful time in changing from one
unrelated activity to the next.
 By standardizing closely related activities, thereby focusing only on distinct differences and
avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort.
 By efficiently storing and retrieving information related to recurring problems, thereby reducing the
search time for the information and eliminating the need to solve the problem again.

GT offers a number of ways to improve productivity, according to studies of companies in batch

manufacturing. One senior executive in the agriculture machinery business told us, “The
fundamental reason for our adoption of GT was to improve cost and quality through reduction of
design proliferation, response time, and work-in-process inventories through standardization and
simplification of manufacturing planning and through creation of more efficient plant layouts.”

Over the last two years, this company has saved more than $9 million through GT. When 20 U.S.
manufacturers using GT were surveyed, 17 of them indicated that the benefits of implementing GT
equaled or exceeded their expectations.2

The management of manufacturing technologies represents a vital component in the

competitiveness of U.S. industry, one that should play a more important role in the formulation of
strategic plans.3 For this to happen, general management must become more familiar with
emerging and promising technologies. In this article we discuss several such technologies, all tied
together by group technology, and identify their wide-reaching applications to all areas of business
operations. We describe the potential benefits that can be achieved as well as common
implementation problems.

The Meaning of Group Technology

GT is, very simply, a philosophy holding that managers should exploit similarities and achieve
efficiencies by grouping like problems. In most cases, a prerequisite for the recognition of
similarities is a system by which the objects of interest can be classified and coded (that is,
assigned symbols representing relevant information). As an analogy, books in a library catalog are
classified and coded in such a way that one can easily find all books written by a particular author,
covering a certain topic, or sharing the same title.

In design engineering, parts can be classified by geometric similarities using codes that contain
design attributes. The purpose could be to retrieve all parts with certain features, such as rotational
parts with a length-to-diameter ratio of less than 2. If one of these fits the need at hand, the
engineers can thereby avoid having to design a new part.

Similarities between parts, captured in the GT code, can in like manner be used by manufacturing
engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, and sales. For example, a manufacturer can drastically
reduce the time and effort spent deciding how a part should be produced if this information is
available for a similar part.

A GT data base is a computerized filing system that speeds up the retrieval of parts information,
facilitates the design process, improves the accuracy of process planning, aids in the creation and
operation of manufacturing cells, and enhances the communication between functional areas.

An early use of GT was documented in the Soviet Union in the 1940s. It has since been
implemented in many European and Asian countries, mainly in the manufacturing area. Interest
among U.S. manufacturers took root in the mid-1970s, and by now many large corporations (John
Deere, Caterpillar, Lockheed, General Electric, Black & Decker, and Cincinnati Milacron are a
few) have taken advantage of GT or are planning GT programs.

The expansion of computer capabilities and the availability of software obviously have abetted the
growth of GT applications. Storing and retrieving codes with 20 or 30 characters are unthinkable
without the aid of a computer. But with advanced employment of the computer in any area of
production operations also comes the need for coding and classification as a way to integrate tasks
and even organizational units. This is the reason why many experts see GT as the missing link
between CAD and CAM (computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing) and thereby
as an important building block for CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing).

Classification & Coding

Among the range of materials that manufacturers handle—raw materials, purchased components,
fabricated parts, subassemblies, and complete items—GT is predominantly applied to purchased
items and fabricated parts. We will concentrate our discussion on these groups.

When engineers are classifying parts and assigning those with closely related attributes to a
particular family, they can determine similarities between items in several ways. From a design
standpoint, for example, similarity can mean closely related geometric shapes and dimensions.
From a manufacturing point of view, similarity between two parts means that they are processed
through the factory in the same or almost the same way. Of course, parts that look alike are not
always produced in the same way (it depends on variations in raw materials, tolerances,
dimensions, and so on), while parts that are routed through the same machines can be quite
dissimilar in geometric form.

Simple, informal parts classification techniques have been employed in companies where the sole
intent was to identify families with similar manufacturing requirements to create dedicated lines or
cells of machines. The Langston Division of Harris-Intertype Corporation in Camden, New Jersey,
one of the early users of GT in the United States, took Polaroid snapshots of every seventh of some
21,000 fabricated parts. When inspected from a production processing point of view, about 93% of
the sample could be allocated to five part families.4

While informal ways of grouping parts are not uncommon, the greatest potential of GT comes via
a formal coding system in which each part gets a numeric or alphanumeric code describing the
attributes of interest. For the widest use, the code should be able to describe the part from both a
design and a manufacturing point of view. Such characteristics as the external and internal shapes,
dimensions, and any threads, grooves, and splines describe the geometric form. The shape and
chemistry of the raw material, the surface finish and tolerance requirements, the need for special
processes like heat treatment, and parts demand—all these are manufacturing attributes. Exhibit I
offers a simple example of a coded part. Clearly, to capture all significant attributes, a large
number of characters is needed.
Exhibit I Simple Example of a Coded Part Note: Based on the first five digits of the Opitz coding
system

Numerous coding systems have been developed all over the world by university researchers and
consulting firms and also by corporations for their own use. A handful of commercial systems is
available on the U.S. market. Of all these, many have a short range of applications, such as coding
sheet metals or forgings only. Modern systems, however, are often computerized, and coding takes
place by having the planner work in a conversational mode with the computer, responding to a
series of questions on the CRT screen.

Once the parts have been coded, classification, which simply means the grouping of parts with
similar characteristics, follows. For example, one family could consist of all parts with a 2 in the
third position of the code. Another could be of those with a 3 in the third position and a 2 in the
fourth. It is easy to see that with a code length of 30 digits, it is possible to create a very large
number of families.

Applying GT…
Although many areas of business operations can benefit from GT, manufacturing, the original
application area, continues to be the place where GT is most widely practiced. Two important tasks
in manufacturing planning and manufacturing engineering are scheduling and process planning.
Job scheduling sets the order in which parts should be processed and can determine expected
completion times for operations and orders. Process planning, on the other hand, decides the
sequence of machines to which a part should be routed when it is manufactured and the operations
that should be performed at each machine. Process planning also encompasses tool, jig, and fixture
selection as well as documentation of the time standards (run and setup time) associated with each
operation. Process planning can directly affect scheduling efficiency and, thus, many of the
performance measures normally associated with manufacturing planning and control.

…in production planning & control

Grouping parts with similar manufacturing characteristics into families will reduce the time spent
on setups of parts and tools. In small-to medium-batch manufacturing, striving for setup reduction
is most important. This type of parts production usually is carried on in a job shop environment
where general purpose machines are grouped according to function, such as lathes in one cluster
and grinders in another. Job shops also usually have high work-in-process inventories, long lead
times, and an extremely low productive use of the time a part spends on the shop floor (normally
no more than 5% of the total shop time). The following are among the ways GT can be carried out
in production planning.

Sequencing of parts families

The simplest—and a highly informal—application of GT in a job shop setting is to sequence

similar parts on a machine. This procedure, followed daily by foremen in most machine shops,
often means overriding formal dispatch lists, which are made up with no consideration of
efficiency. The saved setup time from running two or more related parts in a row can be converted
to productive time. A more sophisticated application is the creation of families of parts (using the
GT code) and the dedication of machines for exclusive processing of families. This approach has
several advantages. First, there are fewer interfering flows of material at each machine. Second,
setup time is reduced since common tooling and fixtures can be developed to handle all members
of each family processed at the work station. Third, the quality of parts can be improved, since the
variety of parts flowing through the work station has been reduced.

Cellular production

The most advanced GT application is through the creation of manufacturing cells. A cell is a
collection of machine tools and materials-handling equipment grouped to process one or several
part families. Preferably, parts are completed within one cell. (The Japanese make much use of
such cells, but apparently without formal classification and coding systems.) The advantages of
cellular manufacturing are many, especially when the cells are designed with one dominant
materials flow and with a fixed conveyor system connecting the work stations. A cell represents a
hybrid production system, a mixture of a job shop producing a large variety of parts and a flow
shop dedicated to mass production of one product. Exhibit II illustrates the difference between a
job shop, based on a functional layout, and a cell shop.
Exhibit II Movement of parts through a job shop and a cell shop

The allocation of equipment to a subset of parts will reduce interference, improve quality, make
materials handling more efficient, cut setup and run times, and therefore trim inventories and
shorten lead times. Shortening parts manufacturing lead times can reduce the response time to
customer orders and thus lead to smaller finished-goods inventories as well. These benefits are
likely to be greater with a physical rearrangement of machinery into cells.

One U.S. manufacturer, EG&G Sealol in Warwick, Rhode Island, found that after producing 900
parts (representing about 30% of all standard hours in the factory) in manufacturing cells, work in
process dropped by 20% to 30% and the need for floor space declined by 15%. For one example,
Sealol turned out 324 parts in one cell with seven machines, whereas before the parts had been
routed to 22 machines. All of these improvements contributed to a 150% rise in total output.5

Management of Otis Engineering in Carrollton, Texas estimated that at one time it had spent $5
million a year on setups. The magnitude of the potential saving is shown by the result of Otis’s first
cell installation—reduction in setup time of 35%.6

Cellular manufacturing offers other advantages too. The factory layout change has organizational
and behavioral implications. Otis Engineering, for example, achieved a more efficient use of
supervisory personnel, and equipment operators gained flexibility and thereby job enrichment. Otis
also established centralized tool and gauge storage for the cell to permit easier access to the tools
and better tool scheduling.

Managers can simplify production planning and control by considering the cell as one planning
point for which capacity planning can be performed and to which jobs can be released. Cells
commonly have more machines than operators, which means that the operators must balance the
load in the cell. This, of course, represents a decentralization of tasks, requiring operators to handle
several machine tools and processes. Further, with cellular manufacturing, tracing a part to its
origin is easy, which facilitates accountability for quality. Management can exploit this by
assigning the responsibility for quality inspection to the cell operators.

The capacity for wider task variety and the need for higher skill levels are features of the cellular
approach, together with the opportunity for teamwork and the focusing of the production process
from raw material to finished part. These advantages can add to operators’ job satisfaction, which
can lead to higher productivity and better quality.

Manufacturing cells also change the tasks production planners, schedulers, and manufacturing
engineers perform and, most dramatically, alter the role of the foreman. Where before he or she
was responsible for only one process, the foreman now supervises production of an entire part.
This, too, affects accountability. In a job shop environment it is always possible to pass the buck by
blaming other foremen for not having parts ready on time. With cells, timely completion becomes
a responsibility solely of the cell foreman.

By mechanizing and automating the materials handling and the manufacturing process, engineers
can create unmanned cells based on GT principles. A robotic work cell designed to process a small
set of part families, for example, consists of computer-controlled machine tools located around one
or more materials-handling robots. Since there is no fixed machine sequence, this type of cell can
be quite flexible. A somewhat less flexible and often much larger cell, designed for higher volumes
and more specialized parts, is called a flexible manufacturing system.
…in process planning

Some of the largest productivity gains have been reported in the creation of process plans that
determine how a part should be produced. With computer-aided process planning (CAPP) and GT
it is possible to standardize such plans, reduce the number of new ones, and store, retrieve, edit,
and print them out very efficiently.

Process planning normally is not a formal procedure. Each time a new part is designed, a process
planner will look at the drawing and decide which machine tools should process the parts, which
operations should be performed, and in what sequence.

There are two reasons why companies often generate excess process plans. First, most companies
have several planners, and each may come up with a different process plan for the very same part.
Second, process planning is developed with the existing configuration of machine tools in mind.
Over time, the addition of new equipment will change the suitability of existing plans. Rarely are
alterations to old process plans made. One company reportedly had 477 process plans developed
for 523 different gears. A close look revealed that more than 400 of the plans could be eliminated.
Another company used 51 machine tools and 87 different process plans to produce 150 parts. An
investigation determined that these parts could be produced on only 8 machines via 31 process
plans. Process planning using CAPP can avoid these problems.

Process planning with CAPP takes two different forms:

With variant-based planning, one standardized plan (and possibly one or more alternate plans) is
created and stored for each part family. When the planner enters the GT code for a part, the
computer will retrieve the best process plan. If none exists, the computer will search for routings
and operations sequences for similar parts. The planner can edit the scheme on the CRT screen
before printout.

With generative planning, which can but does not necessarily rely on coded and classified parts,
the computer forms the process plan through a series of questions the computer poses on the
screen. The end product is also a standardized process plan, which is the best plan for a particular
part.

The variant-based approach relies on established plans entered into the computer memory, while
the generative technique creates the process plans interactively, relying on the same logic and
knowledge that a planner has. Generative process planning is much more complex than variant-
based planning; in fact, it approaches the art of artificial intelligence. It is also much more flexible:
by simply changing the planning logic, for instance, engineers can consider the acquisition of a
new machine tool. With the variant-based method, the engineers must look over and possibly
correct all plans that the new tool might affect.

CAPP permits creation and documentation of process plans in a fraction of the time it would take a
planner to do the work manually and vastly reduces the number of errors and the number of new
plans that must be stored. When you consider that plans normally are handwritten and that process
planners spend as much as 30% of their time preparing them, CAPP’s contribution of standardized
formats for plans and more readable documents is important. CAPP, in effect, functions as an
advanced text editor. Furthermore, it can be linked with an automated standard data system that
will calculate and record the run times and the setup times for each operation.

CAPP can lead to lower unit costs through production of parts in an optimal way. That is, cost
savings come not only via more efficient process planning but also through reduced labor,
material, tooling, and inventory costs. One manufacturer of lamp-making machine tools has
developed an eight-digit coding scheme allowing selection of standard processes to produce certain
components. This application has led to a 76% improvement in manufacturing productivity. At the
same time, the use of CAPP boosted the process planners’ productivity by 30%.

GT can help in the creation of programs that operate numerically controlled (NC) machinery, an
area related to process planning. For example, after the engineers at Otis Engineering had formed
part families and cells, the time to produce a new NC tape dropped from between 4 and 8 hours to
30 minutes. The company thereby improved the potential for use of NC equipment on batches with
small manufacturing quantities.7

…in parts design

GT coding of parts is useful for the efficient retrieval of previous designs as well as for design
standardization. These features help speed up the design process and curb design proliferation.

It is not unusual for a company to find several versions of basically the same part during a
preliminary investigation of the part population. The parts can serve the same function but differ in
terms of tolerances, radii, and so on. General Dynamics’ Pomona Division, for example, came
across a case where a virtually identical nut and coupling unit had been designed on five different
occasions by five design engineers and then drawn by five draftsmen.8 These parts were purchased
from five suppliers at prices ranging from $.22 to $7.50 each. The company also investigated 2,891
parts with different part numbers and discovered that the number of distinct shapes leveled out
fairly quickly to comprise a population of only 541 shapes.

Design proliferation of this kind occurs because of difficulties with design retrieval. While a part
similar to the one that is needed may already exist, the designer has neither a system nor the
patience to find it. It is easier to create a new part, which then means that a new part number must
be assigned, a new process plan made up, new tools designed, and so on.

The aim of design standardization is to reduce variations, to make the parts efficiently, and to
require justification for deviations from norms. Standardization does not mean that all parts with
the same function must be identical. It does mean, however, that norms are established for
tolerances, dimensions, angles, and other specifications. Setting these norms should be done with
both manufacturing and design considerations in mind, bridging the gap between these two areas
and making design engineers more aware of manufacturing costs and restrictions.

A GT coded parts population simplifies the cumbersome job of sifting through old drawings to find
an already designed part. The designer can enter on a CRT a partial code describing the main
characteristics of the needed part. The computer will then search the GT data base for all items
with the same code and list them on the screen. The designer can go through the specifications of
each part and select one that fits or can be modified. With modern computer graphics, each
designed part can be displayed on the CRT so that the designer can inspect it. Once a part design
has been selected or “edited,” the designer can make the actual drawing manually or by computer.

In one company, the retrieved drawing of an already existing spur gear required only slight
modification for a new design.9 The overall saving in design time, manufacturing planning time,
and tooling requirements was estimated to exceed $10,000. In the same company, an analysis of a
shaft family revealed that all eight shafts used three different undercuts. By adopting a design
standard to allow only one undercut design for parts in the family, the company saved
about $12,000.

…in other areas

GT can also be applied in purchasing. Relying on the GT coding of purchased components and raw
materials and on information from the production planning system, a purchasing manager can
obtain statistics not directly available with a traditional parts numbering system. GT can help
reduce proliferation of purchases of different kinds of parts, for example, by identifying
components that serve the same function. It can also list identical parts for which designers have
specified different brands. Companies that reduce the number of different parts they order and the
suppliers they do business with can use the increased volume as leverage to negotiate better deals.

The Aerospace Group of VSI Corporation, which produces engine nuts, purchased blank slugs
based on part number demand.10 By using a coding system, the company found that fewer different
parts could be purchased at higher volumes. This resulted in an average reduction of the purchase
price per unit from 22 cents to 20 cents. This small reduction per unit, multiplied by the 4.8 million
pieces purchased in a year, resulted in an annual saving of $96,000.

Another interesting application is in sales. The same company received a request for immediate
delivery of an engine bolt that was not a stock item. A search of the GT data base, however, turned
up a substitute part that fit the customer’s need and could be delivered right away.

GT can also be used for cost estimation. A company that needs product cost estimates for bidding
purposes, for example, can tentatively code the required parts and then search the GT data base.
For parts falling into established families, standard cost data might already exist. If not, the CAPP
system can help to determine the processes needed to manufacture the part, thereby arriving at cost
data. Several companies have found that GT-generated cost estimates can be constructed more
quickly and with greater accuracy than those made by traditional methods. The approach is also
helpful during the design process to help select components that will lower the total cost of the
proposed product.

GT can also assist in determining the economic consequences of anticipated changes in materials
cost. Assume, for example, that the price of an already expensive alloy is expected to rise. With
GT coding, a list of all parts that use this alloy can be produced within minutes, permitting a swift
assessment of how the increased purchasing cost will affect the manufacturing cost of products
made with the parts.
Implementing GT
GT is a philosophy calling for simplicity and standardization. Any serious attempt to take full
advantage of it begins with the selection of one or more coding systems (each type of material can
conceivably have its own coding system) and the subsequent coding of the material. As with any
formal information system that requires changing ingrained methods and old procedures, GT
cannot be casually decided on or instantaneously implemented. A GT program could require two
or three years to install and will have far-reaching ramifications inside the organization,
particularly if cellular manufacturing is instituted.

We recently surveyed 20 U.S. manufacturers using GT to discover the problems they had
encountered during the implementation process.11 The most common problems fell into three
categories: organizational change and associated human resistance, classification and coding of
parts, and planning and execution of the manufacturing cell concept. The discussion that follows
draws to a large extent from our findings.

Resistance to change, of course, is a universal problem in any organization. Resistance can take
different forms, depending on the employee’s perception of job status and security, understanding
of the new situation, and ability and willingness to adapt. In the case of GT, some examples
illustrate the range of potential problems.

 The mandate for designers to reduce the number of new parts can conflict with a company’s long-
standing evaluation and reward system. In one company, designers had been evaluated on the
number of new drawings they created. Instituting the variety-reduction concept, therefore,
necessarily meant changing the incentive system. (Installing CAD by itself can lead to a surge in
new parts, simply because of the speed with which new designs can be produced.)
 In manufacturing, problems commonly stem from the changing roles of operators and the new areas
of responsibility for supervisors. Working as a team and participating in decision making puts
employees in a new sociological setting. Operators should be able to move from work station to
work station and to perform quality inspection. This requires additional skills and constitutes a new
job design. Both workers and labor union representatives often resist these changes. The foreman’s
role also expands to cover many functions. The foreman must, therefore, know several
manufacturing processes instead of only one and be responsible for the completion of the whole
part and not for only a single operation.

Extensive education about GT concepts, hands-on training, and the early involvement of the
affected individuals are the best ways to implement new work roles. Selling the idea of GT cells to
labor unions can require great efforts, including restructuring payment systems. Personnel policies
and training systems must change as well. Because of the different requirements of working in a
cell, companies commonly rely on volunteers when forming teams. The Alfa-Laval company in
Sweden lets the workers form their own teams and then trains them by simulating the movements
and coordination inside the manufacturing cell on a scale model.

 Production planners and schedulers are also directly affected by cellular manufacturing. Once a cell
has been established, parts not belonging to the appropriate family must be routed elsewhere.Some
companies have found that planners have a tendency to break the family rule: they schedule a part
to the cell containing machines they consider to be the most efficient for its production or to cells
 that have become so efficient that they seem underused. It is difficult to keep the new system up,
and lapses like these can destroy the system’s integrity and lead to backsliding to old ways. Regular
monitoring should accompany the period immediately following a changeover, when these lapses
are most likely to occur.
 The most common problem companies face in the area of coding and classification stems from the
inability of codes to describe the material adequately. Some companies, for example, found that
their coding systems were suitable for design but not for manufacturing purposes. A manager of one
company commented that its coding system could not handle electrical parts. In fact, about two-
thirds of the companies with externally developed systems had made modifications to suit their own
needs. This finding reflects two facts. First, codes to handle both design and manufacturing are
relatively new, and second, companies often need to develop procedures that reflect their own ways
of doing things.
 One direct implication of cellular manufacturing is that the more rigid, flow-oriented system with
drastically reduced work in process requires a stronger emphasis on machine maintenance. Cell
formation, however, also creates a visibility that does not exist in job shops. This visibility makes it
easier for managers and supervisors to identify load-balancing problems in the cells. When a
manufacturing cell is designed, one obvious goal is to achieve a high utilization of all machines in
the cell. The variation in the productive capacities of the machines, however, can create a
restriction, especially if existing machines are relocated to form a cell. The result is usually that one
or two machines end up being bottlenecks, while the others are underused.

The load-balancing problem, also affected by the mix of parts entering the cell, can be alleviated
somewhat by the way parts and part families are released to and sequenced through the cell. At
least one company tried to attack this problem through its production planning and control system.
Interestingly, however, the integration of GT cells and a scheduling system like MRP (materials
requirements planning) can cause a whole new set of problems. These derive from the fact that an
MRP system focuses on the completion dates of individual parts and assemblies, while cellular
manufacturing focuses on the efficient production of part families. Bringing these two systems
together will require new procedures for planning and scheduling.12

Another problem concerns buffer inventories, which usually stack up between work stations, and
the operators’ ability to eliminate these inventories in a balanced fashion. The unbalanced work
load can become an advantage, however, by focusing capacity planning on these few bottlenecks.
Even if the additional, dedicated machines cause a lower overall machine usage, the increased
throughput times, lower inventory levels, increased productivity, and higher quality associated with
cells represent a net gain. One company actually reduced its machine population by 25% after
switching to cellular manufacturing because of a significant increase in efficiency.

Two things, finally, must be pointed out regarding cellular production. First, there are, at present,
no established and widely accepted formal procedures for creating cells. It is clear, however, that in
the future computer simulation will increasingly be used for this purpose. Second, if cell
manufacturing is implemented in an existing plant, the expectation that all parts can be allocated to
part families and manufactured in production cells is unrealistic. Instead, the converted plant will
be a mixture of a job shop and a cell shop, where the job shop area retains the flexibility to handle
odd parts.

The Cost-Benefit Picture

Companies that have implemented GT have reported that it can produce impressive benefits. In the
20-company survey previously mentioned GT was given credit for reduced tooling and fixture
expenses, reduced materials handling cost, reduced production planning and control efforts,
reduced need for floor space, reduced lead times, reduced work-in-process inventories, improved
quality, increased worker satisfaction, reduced design effort, easier design retrieval, and easier and
more accurate cost estimates. One company stated that the rationale for using GT was “to simplify
operations so they come within the bounds of human comprehension.” Another company
suggested that GT’s most significant contribution was to provide “a tool for understanding what
we manufacture.”

Although manufacturing cells can be established without previous coding of the parts, coding
systems are definitely necessary for a wider use of GT. Selecting coding systems and coding the
parts is a long and costly exercise. When this milestone has been passed, however, the code opens
a wide range of possible uses. Otis Engineering, for example, reportedly spent 18 months training
people and analyzing parts populations with no apparent benefits. The company, however, quickly
recaptured the cost of the preparation during the first nine months of manufacturing operations
based on GT principles.13

Once coding has been done, it can be used in connection with design retrieval, CAPP, cell
formation, purchasing, and tooling development. The more experience a company gathers, the
more it can take advantage of the GT concept, and the more satisfied it will be with the result.
According to the survey, an absolute majority of the GT users were reaping benefits that met or
exceeded their initial expectations. And users were generally more satisfied with GT the longer
they had been involved with it. Almost all of the companies had plans for expanding their use of
GT, for example, by increasing the number of manufacturing cells, installing CAPP, or coding all
material in their inventory files.

To make any type of investment worthwhile, the expected benefits must exceed the expected costs.
According to one senior-ranking executive, few U.S. businesses have adopted GT because of a
misperception of its cost-benefit picture. “The real causes of excessive manufacturing costs are
either not understood at all or only poorly understood by most manufacturing managements,” he
says. “Therefore, the benefits of the group technology approach to design and manufacturing are
not appreciated. On the other hand, the time and money needed to adopt GT are readily apparent
and discourage managers who cannot visualize the benefits.”

In a recent HBR article, Bela Gold warned against the uncritical use of traditional capital budgeting
techniques in connection with CAM projects.14 An investment in modern manufacturing
technology should be a piece of a larger manufacturing system, in which each new part creates
tangible and intangible synergisms. The systemwide approach also requires a broad level of
analysis and a longer planning horizon. GT and associated technologies should be analyzed the
same way. If the rewards are long-term, short-term financial projections are simply inappropriate
—particularly if the ultimate objective is to create an integrated manufacturing system.

Implications for Management

The world of manufacturing is changing rapidly, due both to new applications for the computer
developed largely in the United States and to unorthodox views of management principles and
systems often taken from abroad. These changes put pressure on management to acquire new
skills. Emerging technologies require executives to have at least a working knowledge of their
applicability and the role they will play in corporate strategy. Top management cannot abdicate its
responsibility and delegate these important decisions.

Launching a GT program is a major undertaking with long-term implications for the organizational
structure and the people in it. It will be costly, but it will also make contributions that grow over
time. GT is another example of the need for management to include technology in strategic
decision making. As was the case in the past with installations of management information
systems, so today in the case of GT, top management support and absolute commitment are critical
for successful implementations, particularly because better communication and coordination
between departments necessarily evolve as a result of the GT concept. Computerized information
technologies represent an opportunity for many manufacturers to establish a competitive edge. The
learning process is long, so there is no time to waste.