Macro-GT: A case study of group technology principles applied to geographically separated facilities for the U.S. Army

Group technology (GT) is a tool for improving the productivity and reducing the cost of manufacturing. After more than 20 years of experience using the concept, the benefits of GT in manufacturing are numerous and well documented. While GT is routinely applied to the manufacture of individual new parts within a single facility, this case study investigated applying the principles of GT to complete products that are overhauled at geographically distributed facilities to minimize redundancies and to optimize the distribution of work. This notion is referred to as macro-GT. To demonstrate the capacilities of macro-GT, a prototye of the methodology is applied to the overhaul of engines for the U.S. Army.