ABSTRACT
Cellular manufacturing (CM) has been described as a hybrid production system. In other words, it combines elements of traditional production systems (jobbing, batch and flow manufacturing) to achieve the favourable qualities of each without their respective disadvantages (Hill 1985; Bennett 1986). Burbidge (1979, 1989) describes the desirable features of Group Technology (which he prefers as a synonym for CM) as follows: 1) each cell should have its own team of workers who stay together as far as possible; 2) a cell should complete its own special set of products; 3) each cell should directly control all the machines and equipment necessary to complete the products in its family; 4) a cell’s machines and equipment should be laid out in one special area reserved for the group (The layout should minimise material handling and maximise social contact within the
cell.); 5) the number of workers in the cell should be small enough to obtain social cohesion; 6) tasks and output targets should be given to the cell as a whole and not separately to its individual workers; 7) the cell should regulate its own operations (at least its own dispatching, and should be responsible for its own quality); 8) material flow within the cell should be continuous, not intermittent or completing one stage on all products before going on to the next stage. While recognising that not all these will be desirable or feasible in all situations, he recommends that successful CM requires the presence of a majority of these features.
