The family grouping philosophy

Abstract

The paper explains how simple ideas in the field of group technology have led to the development of a new system of production, called the cell system, which differs from, but complements, flow-line production and traditional ‘ job and batch ’ (functional layout-based) production. The cell system is not just a simple arrangement of similar components and similar tooling, but a new system of production, which, like the flow-line system, has rules and conditions for its practice. Only in the last two years has group technology developed sufficiently for a theory to begin to emerge. With now production systems today, it is not enough to deal only with ‘ engineering ’ or ‘ production ’, but present clay systems must be concerned with the complex interaction of market, management, machines, and men. This paper shows the importance of the cell system at different levels, beginning with the lowest, and leads the reader towards a rather different approach to the management of an engineering, or other multi-produc...