The product mix of a jobshop usually consists of hundreds, even thousands, of different parts (or custom assemblies of these parts).
Realistically speaking, given the market conditions in which the typical jobshop operates, it is both a challenge and an ill-advised
strategy to reorganize the entire facility into several independent and stand-alone manufacturing cells with each cell being dedicated to
a different part family. A pure Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS)
could make a jobshop inflexible! Numerous real-world constraints often prevent a complete conversion of a jobshop into a CMS, such as:
- Poor process engineering during the RFQ phase that creates different routings for similar (even identical) parts,
- High variety in product mix is tolerated as a business strategy to balance demand variability in market segments,
- Expensive machines that are required by multiple cells but could not be dedicated to any one (or more) cells,
- "Monuments" that are required by multiple cells but could not be located within any of the cells,
However, a jobshop could benefit from having prior knowledge about the part families in its product mix to pursue a single strategic goal to simplify
their jobshop! This can be done using various combinations of Lean Advisory Tools (LAT's) that utilize outputs produced by the PFAST
(Production Flow Analysis and Simplification Toolkit) software. Each LAT is intended to support a particular strategy for simplifying a
jobshop. Specific strategies include Product Mix Segmentation to support Mixed Mode Manufacturing (M
3), Group Technology for "Gating"
Orders, Cellular Manufacturing vs. Hybrid Cellular Layouts, Product Mix Rationalization, Flexible Manufacturing Modules ("Partial Cells"),
Virtual Cellular Manufacturing Systems (VCMS) enabled by Finite Capacity Scheduling and Water Striders, etc. This self-study guidebook
explains the use of various PFAST outputs that constitute each LAT.
View Network of Lean Advisory Tools (LAT)
Lean Advisory Tools for Jobshops--Irani
This workbook is based on work done for the Flexible Forge Shop Design project(http://fdmc.aticorp.org/) funded by the Defense Logistics Agency and the Forging Defense Manufacturing Consortium (FDMC) managed by the Advanced Technology Institute.
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