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GROUP
TECHNOLOGY AND CELLULAR MANUFACTURING
Group
Technology (GT) is the production of a part family, of products or services,
in one area, comprising all the necessary machines and processes, thereby
enabling one-piece flow and drastic reductions in lead time and inventory.
But,
GT or cellular manufacturing goes beyond this:
- It is at heart of JIT, allowing all the things
that JIT aims at : flexibility, one-piece flow, responsiveness,
visibility, simplicity of control, high quality, minimal inventories
and focus.
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It
is often central to the concept of self directed team working, since
all team members, from a variety of skill areas, work together on
one clearly-defined product family, in one physical area, with clear
responsibility.
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GT can also mean a classification and coding system to enable the
identification of product families, the simplification of designs,
and avoidance of "reinventing the wheel".
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Decentralised scheduling is made possible. The cell is treated as
one large work centre. Often, the detailed scheduling is left to the
team who can also be responsible for quality, maintenance, leave,
and even inventory. This is directly compatible with the self directed
work team concept.
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