Group Technology

A manufacturing philosophy in which similar parts are identified and

grouped together to take advantage of their similarities in design
and production

Similarities among parts permit them to be classified into part

families

 In each part family, processing steps are similar

 The improvement is typically achieved by organizing the

production facilities into manufacturing cells that specialize in
production of certain part families.
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 FUNCTIONAL LAYOUTS ARE INEFFICIENT

Lathe Milling Drilling

L L M M D D

D D
L L M M
Grinding
L L M M G G

Assembly
L L G G
A A
Receiving and A A G G
Shipping

PROCESS-TYPE LAYOUT
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 CELLULAR LAYOUT
Department #2 Department #1

D D M I D
I
L
Department #3
M
M
L L D M I

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Production flow analysis: Parts that go through
common operations are grouped into part
families.

The machines used to perform these common

operations may be grouped as a cell,
consequently this technique can be used in
facility layout (factory layout)

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 Forming Part Families –
Classification and Coding: Production Flow
Analysis (PFA)
 PFA is a method for identifying part families and associated
machine groupings based on the required manufacturing
processes need for each part

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 Production Flow Analysis
 Stage 1: Machine classification.
 Machines are classified on the basis of operations that can be performed on
them. A machine type number is assigned to machines capable of
performing similar operations.
 Stage 2: Checking parts list and production route information.
 For each part, information on the operations to be undertaken and the
machines required to perform each of these operations is checked
thoroughly
 Stage 3: Factory flow analysis.
This involves a micro-level examination of flow of components
through machines. This, in turn, allows the problem to be decomposed
into a number of machine-component groups.

Stage 4: Machine-component group analysis.

An intuitive manual method is suggested to manipulate the matrix to form
cells. However, as the problem size becomes large, the manual approach
does not work. Therefore, there is a need to develop analytical
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approaches to handle large problems systematically
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 Example #1

Consider a problem of 5 machines and 6 parts. Try to group them by using

Rank Order Clustering Algorithm.

Part ‘Number’

1 2 3 4 5 6
A 1 1
Machine ID

B 1 1
C 1 1
D 1 1 1
E 1 1 1

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 Step 1:

Decimal
Part Numbers equivalent
Rank

1 2 3 4 5 6

B. Wt: 25 24 23 22 21 20

A 1 1 23+21 = 10 5
Machine ID

B 1 1 24+23 = 24 4

C 1 1 25+22=36 2

D 1 1 1 24+23+21 = 26 3

E 1 1 1 25+22+20=37 1

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Step 2: Must Reorder! Vellore
Step 2:
Part Number

1 2 3 4 5 6

E 1 1 1
Machine ID

C 1 1

D 1 1 1

B 1 1

A 1 1

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 Step 3:
Part Number

B. WT. 1 2 3 4 5 6

E 24 1 1 1

23
Machine ID

C 1 1

D 22 1 1 1

B 21 1 1

A 20 1 1

Decimal 24+23 22+21= 22+21+ 24+23= 22+20=

24=16
equivalent = 24 6 20=7 24 5

Rank 1 5 4 2 6 3

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Step 4: Must Reorder Vellore
Back at Step 1:
Part Number D. Eqv Rank

1 4 6 3 2 5
B Wt: 25 24 23 22 21 20

E 1 1 1 25+24+ 23=56 1

C 1 1 25+24= 48 2

D 1 1 1 22+21+ 20 = 7 3

B 1 1 22+21=6 4

A 1 1 22+20=5 5

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Order stays theDr.T.Sampath
same: Kumar, Asso. Prof. VIT University,
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Quantities Analysis in Cellular Manufacturing

• A number of quantities techniques have been developed to

deal with problem areas in group technology and cellular
manufacturing.

1. Grouping parts and machines into families.

2. Arranging machines in a GT cell.

• The two problem areas have been and still active research
areas.

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Grouping Parts and Machines by Rank Order Clustering (ROC)

• The Rank Order Clustering (ROC) technique is specifically

applicable in production flow analysis. It is an efficient and
easy to use algorithm for grouping machines into cells.

• The algorithm, which is based on sorting rows and columns of

the machine-part incidence matrix, is given below.
1. Assign binary weight and calculate a decimal weight for
each row using the formula

m
Decimal weight for row i   bip 2 m p

p 1
Where
m is the number of row and
b is11/5/2019
a binary number (0 or 1)
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Grouping Parts and Machines by Rank Order Clustering (ROC)

2. Rank the rows from top to bottom in order of decreasing

decimal weight values

3. Assign binary weight and calculate a decimal weight for

each column using the formula
n
Decimal weight for column j   b pj 2 n p

Where p 1
n is the number of column and b is a binary number (0 or 1)

4. Rank the column from left to right in order of decreasing

decimal weight values

5. Continue
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preceding steps until there is no change in the
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position of each element in each row and column
 Example of Rank Order Clustering Technique

• Apply the rank order clustering technique to the part-machine

incidence matrix shown below.

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 Example of Rank Order Clustering Technique
• First iteration (Step 1)

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 Example of Rank Order Clustering Technique
• Second iteration (Steps 2 and 3 )

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 Example of Rank Order Clustering Technique
• Solution (Steps 4 and 5)

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 Rank Order Clustering Algorithm
Example:2
Consider a problem of 5 machines and 10 parts. Try to group them by
using Rank Order Clustering Algorithm.
Table 1 Components
Machines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

M1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M2 1 1 1 1 1

M3 1 1 1 1

M4 1 1 1 1 1 1

M5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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 Rank Order Clustering Algorithm
Table 2 Binary weight
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20

Components
Machines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Decimal
equivalent

M1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1007

M2 1 1 1 1 1 451

M3 1 1 1 1 568

M4 1 1 1 1 1 1 455

M5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1020
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 Rank Order Clustering Algorithm
Table 3 Binary weight
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20

Components
Binary Machines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
weight
24 M5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
23 M1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
22 M3 1 1 1 1
21 M4 1 1 1 1 1 1
20 M2 1 1 1 1 1
Decimal
equivalent
28 27 27 27 28 20 28 26 11 11
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 Rank Order Clustering Algorithm

Table 4 Binary weight

29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20

Components
Binary Machines Decimal
1 5 7 2 3 4 8 6 9 10 equivalent
weight

24 M5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1020
23 M1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1019
22 M3 1 1 1 1 900
21 M4 1 1 1 1 1 1 123
20 M2 1 1 1 1 1 115
Decimal
equivalent
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28 28 28 27 27 27 26 20 11
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 Rank Order Clustering Algorithm

 The ROC provides a simple analytical technique that

can be easily computerized
 The ROC has fast convergence and relatively low
computation time depending on the matrix size
 The fact that ROC uses binary values will impose
restrictions on the size of the matrix that can be solved

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Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)

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 Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)
Example:

Step 1. Select any row i of the incidence matrix and draw a

horizontal line hi through it.
Row 3 of the matrix is selected randomly and a horizontal line
h3 is drawn.
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 Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)

Step 2. For each entry of 1 crossed by the horizontal line h3

draw a vertical line vj.
Three vertical lines v2, v6, and v7 are drawn

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 Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)

Step 3. For each entry of 1 crossed once by a vertical line vj

draw a horizontal line. A horizontal line h6 is drawn through all
the crossed-once entries of the matrix:

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 Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)
Step 4. The preceding steps are repeated until no more crossed
once entries are left.
• All the crossed-twice entries are grouped in a block and removed
from the matrix.
•Parts 2, 6, 7 and machines 3, 6 are grouped in one block.

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 Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)

The grouped parts and machines are removed from the matrix

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 Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)

Step 5: The above procedure is repeated for the

remaining matrix entries until all entries are grouped

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 Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA)

The resulting matrix is as follows:

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 Group Analysis

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 Machine - Component Group Analysis

Example: Consider a problem of 4 machines and 6

parts. Try to group them.

Components
Machines 1 2 3 4 5 6

M1 1 1 1

M2 1 1 1

M3 1 1 1

M4 1 1 1
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 Machine - Component Group Analysis

Solution
Components
Machines 2 4 6 1 3 5
M1 1 1 1

M2 1 1 1

M3 1 1 1

M4 1 1 1

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BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

It affects all areas of a company, including:

 engineering
 equipment specification
 facilities planning
 process planning
 production control
 quality control
 tool design
 purchasing
 service
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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

Some of the well-known tangible and intangible benefits

of implementing GT :

1. Engineering design
• Reduction in new parts design
• Reduction in the number of drawings through
standardization
• Reduction of number of similar parts, easy retrieval of
similar functional parts, and identification of substitute
parts
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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

2. Layout planning

 Reduction in production floor space required

 Reduced material-handling effort

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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

3. Specification of equipment, tools, jigs, and

fixtures

 Standardization of equipment
 Implementation of cellular manufacturing systems
 Significant reduction in up-front costs incurred in
the release of new parts for manufacture

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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

4. Manufacturing: process planning

 Reduction in setup time and production time

 Alternative routing leading to improved part
routing
 Reduction in number of machining operations
and numerical control (NC) programming time

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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

5. Manufacturing: production control

 Reduced work-in-process inventory

 Easy identification of bottlenecks
 Improved material flow and reduced warehousing
costs
 Faster response to schedule changes
 Improved usage of jigs, fixtures, pallets, tools,
material handling, and manufacturing equipment

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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

6. Manufacturing: quality control

 Reduction in number of defects leading to reduced

inspection effort
 Reduced scrap generation
 Better output quality
 Increased accountability of operators and supervisors
responsible for quality production, making it easier to
implement total quality control concepts.

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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

7. Purchasing

 Coding of purchased part leading to standardized rules

for purchasing
 Economies in purchasing possible because of accurate
knowledge of raw material requirements
 Reduced number of part and raw materials
 Simplified vendor evaluation procedures leading to just-
in-time purchasing

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 BENEFITS OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY

8. Customer service

 Accurate and faster cost estimates

 Efficient spare parts management, leading to
better customer service
 Lower lead times

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