Methods of cell formulation in group technology: A framework for evaluation

Group technology is a manufacturing philosophy that attempts to provide some of the operational advantages of a line layout while maintaining some of the strategic advantages of the job shop layout. In designing a productive process that will adopt this manufacturing strategy, one of the primary problems encountered is the formation of component families and production cells. The production cell is a group of machines or processes of functionally dissimilar types that are placed together and dedicated to the manufacture of a specific range of component families. Several researchers in operations management have proposed methods of forming production cells and component families. These methods differ in terms of information requirements and also in terms of the final cell design. Furthermore, the objectives for each method are quite different and it thus seems that the focus has been on the method rather than its appropriateness in a particular situation. This article reviews some of the most publicized methods of group formation and analyzes the type of cells that could be formed using these methods. Subsequently, an evaluative framework is presented where the relative advantages of each type of production cell are discussed in terms of several strategic and operational factors. This framework is of particular use as it highlights the fact that in implementing a cellular manufacturing system, most organizations will face a trade-off of strategic and operational ‘costs.’ Finally, the appropriateness of the cell types with respect to the degree of customer interaction is also discussed.