Submitted by (Group 7)

Dukhande Rohit Hemant (1702058)

Gaurav Mantri (1702064)
SOT ANALYSIS
Anshul Ekka (1702031)
Aditya Iyer (1702072)

SOT ANALYSIS
SOT ANALYSIS
Development of Competitive Advantage
Competitive Advantage means superior performance relative to other
competitors in the market
Earlier, companies used superior quality as a metric to gain
competitive advantage over their market rivals
Now, this approach is becoming irrelevant as almost all the companies
focus on quality in their products
This leads to increased focus on flexibility, minimized costs and quick
responses to changes
Flexibility involves high integration and automation of manufacturing
systems

Competitive Advantage
 Group Technology as a Solution for
Flexibility
Challenges to flexibility include lack of skill and capital intensiveness
Group Technology (GT) was conceptualized by Min and Shin in 1994
GT improves productivity by grouping parts and products with similar
characteristics into families and forming production cells with a group
of dissimilar machines and processes
GT improves flexibility without increase in production costs or
decrease in production quality
Apart from GT, JIT is another approach to achieve Competitive
Advantage.

Group Technology and Flexibility

 Group Technology VS Just In Time
Just In Time Approach
The idea got famous because of the success of Japanese firms practising
it
It is a production strategy with a set of values to improve quality and
productivity
It improves Supplier Relationships, quality circles, preventive
maintenance and better communications with the help of Kanban
concept
It takes unconventional approach of implementation, is expensive and
takes long years before reliable application
GT is an alternative means of achieving similar objectives with lesser risk
GT can be integrated within JIT programs with relative ease.
GT includes two primary systems:
Cellular Manufacturing
GT Coding and Classification Systems

Group Technology Vs Just in Time

 Cellular
Manufacturing
 In cellular manufacturing, grouping of parts having similar processing
requirements to form GT cells. A GT cell is a physical grouping of
certain machines into a small area so that all the machines needed to
produce a family of similar parts are in a cell and each part can then
be completely processed within the cell
In the following figure, the difference between a traditional functional
layout of machines and GT cell Layout is depicted
All the parts produced within a cell are similar - this results in shorter
setup times and small batch size
Smaller batch size has benefits as shorter lead time, less work in
progress, fewer space requirement, easier material handling and less
rework & scrap

Cellular Manufacturing
Cellular Manufacturing
 The variety-volume matrix illustrates when different process
structures or production strategies are most appropriate
The matrix shows the tradeoff between production flexibility and
cost per unit
Job shop is flexible to produce variety of parts. Here the cost of
production per unit is higher because it uses general purpose
machines
Continuous flow production method is least flexible because
facilities and equipments are streamlined to produce a particular
part and it results in lowest cost per unit
Group technology cell layout lies between job shop and batch
processing. Here parts are produced in small to medium batches
A GT cell creates a small cost effective assembly line within the
production operation but provide much more flexibility than a
traditional assembly lines

Cellular Manufacturing
 Implementation
1. Identification of parts to be produced
Similar characteristics
Fairly stable demands
At least moderate volumes
2. Selection of required machines
Parts largely determine the machines
Machines are replicated due to job shop/batch shop
layout
3. Employee education and training
Cross-training of workers for multiple responsibilities
Supervisors to be trained to have product
orientation
Major expenses incurred but critical for benefit
realization
4. Re-arrangement and start of operations
Ideally, machines to be shifted in non-working hours
Best to create one cell at a time
Transition will be smoother and quicker

Implementation Of Cellular Manufacturing

 GT Coding & Classification System
The system consists of two activities:
Each part or subcomponent is assigned a code based on coding scheme that
describes its various attributes
Parts are classified into families based on similar attributes such as geometric
shape, type of material, machine requirement or tolerance requirements
An example of GT coding and classification system:
GT Code: 341PS0117
Here each number symbolises an attribute

Field 1: 1-sheet metal

2-Metal block
3-Bar Stock

Field 2: 1- High Carbon Steel

2- Low carbon steel
3-Aluminium Alloy
4-Stainless Steel Bar stock of Stainless steel

GT Coding & Classification System

 Preparatory Stage of GT coding &
classification

Part Drawing

Coding

Family One
Standard
Plan
File
Family Formation
(Indexed
by Family
Matrix)
Process Plan

GT Coding & Classification System

Production and Process planning stage of
GT coding & Classification system

Coding Family Search Standard

Plan
File

Editing
Process Plan

Standard Plan
Retrieval

GT Coding & Classification System

 Implementation of GT Coding
1. Selection of appropriate coding scheme
To represent design attributes, manufacturing attributes or both
Flexibility, E.g. alphanumeric codes and numeric codes

2. Determine computer software to be used

Develop in-house or purchase from vendor
E.g. OPITZ, MICLASS, IntelliCLAPP or KK-1
Hardware requirements also to be considered

3. Assigning code to each part

Determine value for each digit of the GT code
Most time-consuming and labour intensive

4. Employee training and education

For those involved in design engineering, sales, purchasing and product
development

Implementation of GT coding
 Benefits of Group Technology
Since operators in a Cellular model produce limited set of similar products,
enhancements in their skillsets lead to improved product quality. Significant
reduction in mistakes and defects are observed due to implementation of GT
The Lord Corporation, a producer of Helicopter components reduced its
component return rate from 50% to 0%

Lower production cost, Increased production capacity and better cost

estimation can lead to increase in profitability to the firms

At Harley-Davidson Inc. Cellular method of GT resulted in 26% increment

in productivity and 29% reduction in scrap by reducing set up time, work-
in-progress material and uncertainty

Competitive Advantage of GT
The companies are able to improve customer service by reducing lead time
that plays an important role during changing customer demands and fulfilling
the delivery promises
Kennametal Inc. shortened its Lead Time from 42 days to 27 days and
reduced cost by $1 million simultaneously

A few more benefits of implementing Group Technology are:

Reduction in required floor space and better organized manufacturing

layout
Faster process of locating ongoing job and simplified job status tracking
GT system might eliminate the chances of discovering an already
designed product
Standardizing product subcomponents reduces the burden of repair and
replacement
GT Database enables salesperson to look for alternative solutions in case
of emergency

Competitive Advantage of GT