Case study &

Applications of
Group Technology
By:
Prajjwal - 19109015
Pulkit Dureja – 19109016
Raghav Bansal - 19109018
Aditya Verma - 19109019
Vasudha Aggarwal - 19109027
 Group Technology
• It is the manufacturing philosophy which advocates simplification
and standardization of similar parts in order to reduce complexity
in manufacturing.
• GT is a manufacturing concept in which similar parts are grouped together in parts, groups and families.
Definition of Group Technology:

• Group technology was introduced by Frederick Taylor in

1919 as a way to improve productivity.
• GT can be defined as realization that many problems are
similar, and that by grouping similar problems, a single
solution can be found to a set of problems thus saving
time and effort.
• Similarities among parts enable them to be classified into
families.
• In each family processing steps are similar.
• GT can be applied in different area of production system.
It forms the basis for the development of computer-aided
procedures and flexible automation.
• Groups of machines, chosen for each family are situated together in a group layout, in such a
way that parts flow from one machine to the next in sequence of operation. It is not-necessary
for every part to visit each machine, but the machines in a cell should ideally be capable of
carrying out all the operations required in the family.
• GT viewed as an essential step in the move toward factory automation and in maintaining a
high quality level and profitable production.
• GT was introduced in GE, Lockheed and Boeing and allowed them to deal with enormous
problems of classifying and designing hundreds of thousands of parts. GT was then viewed as
helping implement factory automation strategies and helps maintain high quality levels along
with profitable production.
Objectives of Group
Technology
• Reduce average lot size
• Increase part variety

• Increase variety of materials.

• Achieve close tolerances.

• Improve scheduling

• Reduce tooling

• Increase equipment utilization.

Need for Group Technology
• Ease of operation
• Changing market demand
• Regular upgradation of the products
• The duplication of work is reduced
• Better tool handling and production control
 Group Technology (GT) as a manufacturing
philosophy plays a major role in:-

Applications • Design standardization

• Manufacturing cell layouts

of Group • Process planning, purchasing, and manufacturing

technology systems design.
Technology One of the most effective ways to use GT is to
facilitate significant reductions in design time and
effort.
 Group Technology can:
• Enable Cellular Manufacturing.
• Reduce Engineering Cost.
Applications • Accelerate Product Development.
• Improve Costing Accuracy.
of Group • Simplify Process Planning.

Technology • Reduce Tooling Cost.

• Simplify Purchasing.
• Help With Value Stream Mapping
 • Better lead times result in fast response and more
reliable delivery.
• Robots can be easily used for material handling.
• Better space utilisation.
• Smaller variety of tools, jigs and fixtures.
Why Should • Improved quality and less scrap.
• Output is improved due to improved resource
We Use GT? utili­sation.
• Work in progress and finished stock levels are re­
duced.
• Simplified estimating, accounting and work man­
agement.
• Improved plant replacement decisions.
 • Additional cost of implementation of this
Disadvantages system.
• Rate of change in product range and mix.
of GT • Difficulties with out-of-cell operations.
• Coexistence with non-cellular systems.
Stages of Group Technology
Group technology principles can be implemented in
four major stages:
• Grouping parts
• Grouping machinery
• Grouping personnel and
• Organizational grouping

Obviously, the idea of group technology denotes a general

organizational concept rather than a single technique.
 Implementation Phases
Group technology can be implemented
into 3 different phases:
•Phase 1-Actions on the manufacturing process
•Phase 2-Changes to the production process
•Phase 3-Results for the organization
Implementation Phase- 1
Group technology has the following actions on the
manufacturing process:
• Part Simplification
• Process Standardization
• Production Control
Implementation Phase- 2
The changes group technologies can have on the production
process:
•Tighter Parts Control
•Close physical layout of machine groups
•Orderings tied to production
Implementation Phase- 3
The results that group technologies have at the organizational
level.

•Systematic design and redesign

•High-quality level
•Less process planning time and setup time
 • GT promotes standardization of tooling,
fixturing and setups.
• Material handling is reduced because parts are
moved within a cell rather than within a factory.
Benefits of • Product planning and production scheduling are
simplified.
Group • Setup times are reduced resulting in lower
manufacturing lead times.
Technology • Work in process is reduced.
• Worker satisfaction usually improves when
workers collaborate in a GT cell.
• Higher quality work is accomplished using
group technology.
1.ENGINEERING DESIGN
• Reduction in new parts design
• Reduction of no. of similar parts, easy retrieval of similar functional parts
and identification of substitute parts.
2. Layout Planning
• Reduction in production floor space required.
• Reduced material handling effort.
3 .Manufacturing: process planning

• Reduction in setup time and production time.

• Reduction in number of machining operations and numerical control programming time.

4. Manufacturing: production control

• Reduced work in process inventory

• Easy identification of bottlenecks

• Improved material flow and reduced warehousing costs.

• Faster response to scheduled change

5. Manufacturing: quality control
• Reduction in no. of defects leading to reduced inspection effort.

• Reduced scrap generation

• Better output quality

• Increased accountability of supersvisors and operators.

LIMITATIONS OF GROUP
TECHNOLOGY
• Problem of identifying part families.
• Time consuming and expensive process.
• Rearranging the machines in the plant into the
appropriate machine cells is complex.
• Not suitable when very wide variety of products
are manufactured.
Case Study:
Application of Group
Technology in
Furniture
Manufacturing
 Prerequisites
• A furniture production company was chosen for the study.
• It manufactures 440 different products, such as wardrobes, beds, kitchen cabinets and all
kinds of smaller pieces of furniture.
• Production starts with the cutting of basic shapes of wood panels for future product parts.
• Cutting operation is then performed using two cutting machines.
• Edge finishing is then provided followed by drilling.
• CNC machines are also used for manufacturing of complex parts.
• The production process is finalized with visual control of parts, final control and packaging.
• The current shop floor layout is given below.
System Analysis
• Various steps were performed to analyze the system,
such as, product assortment, machine line-up, material
flow, as well as the technological capabilities of the
machines.
• Similarities between components were then found on
the basis of attributes of material (such as thickness and
color for example), the quality of material and
compatibility of parts embedded into multiple products.
• The products were then sorted manually by using
product explosion and parts material flow.
• The whole product assortment is produced on a number
of machines shown in table shown alongside:
 Creation of Product Part Groups
• Part groups were created on the basis of production technology, available machines and analysis of product
parts.
• Factors considered: work operations, efficiency of machines and sizes of the parts produced.
• Parts with similar specifications classified into different groups because of their size.
• Decomposing of 440 products led to the creation of 16 distinct part groups shown in figure shown below.
• Red represents processing done on each part group.
• The table given alongside shows production process of the part groups, according to the routing.
Obtained part groups as
well as their routing and
available machines in
the system led to the
creation of material flow
diagram for part groups
as shown in figure
alongside.
 Proposed Benefits
The furniture company stands to enjoy the following benefits upon successful implementation of
group technology principles:
• Decreasing the set-up times (a decrease from 3 up to 10 times, depending on the machine),
• Simplifying the material flows in the system,
• Simplifying the launch of orders into the system,
• Shortening the lead times in the system (from 8 up to 12 times depending on the concrete
part),
• Shortening transport ways and with it the transport times in the system (approx. twice),
• Decreasing the size of unfinished production and queues between the operations
significantly.
 Case Study Conclusion
After implementation of group technology principles, the following layout was proposed:
The shop floor was divided into three work units:
• Manufacturing cell 1 – for production of complex parts.
• Manufacturing cell 2 – for production of simple parts.
• Area for packaging and commissioning of modules.
The final layout of shop floor has been shown below:
 REFERENCE
S
• https://hbr.org/1984/07/group-technology-and-productivity
• https://www.slideshare.net/HimanshiGupta26/group-technology-
79469587
• https://learnmech.com/group-technology-definition-meaning-advantages/
• https://prolog.univie.ac.at/teaching/LVAs/Layout_und_Design/SS09/Skript
%20insel.pdf
• https://www.sv-jme.eu/?
ns_articles_pdf=/ns_articles/files/ojs/708/public/708-3380-1-
PB.pdf&id=3021
THANK
YOU!!!