Difference between conventional manufacturing and cellular manufacturing
Answers
Cellular manufacturing arrived on the scene starting in the late 70's as part of the movement to Lean Manufacturing and JIT. The concept is to group dissimilar machines together in a group (cell) so that all the necessary functions to produce a particular piece are tied together to reduce workflow movement and the number of staging areas and que. Each cell could perform a variety of tasks, i.e. cutting, welding, drilling, grinding, etc, so that the resultant component would be completed and ready for the next step in the assembly process.
Conventional (flexible)Manufacturing Manufacturing is an adaptation of the assembly line technique. Whereas, in early manufacturing processes, a particular machine was set up and dedicated to performing a single task on a specific part newer technologies allowed a reduction in the number of machines and the quick changeover to perform the same task on different parts with great ease. An example would be a kingpin finishing operation (disk brake component and steering linkage). A drilling operation would be set up to drill a hole or series of holes of the same size for a particular kingpin. There would be one drill set-up for each hole size. With the advent of robotics and milling/drilling centers, one machine could be set up to drill any of a variety of holes on a variety of different parts, thus reducing the number of machines and floor requirements and greatly increasing the speed through which the part can move through the factory. This also reduced WIP and shortened the que.
Today, a combination of both cellular and conventional manufacturing is the standard practice. The industrial manufacturing engineer will try to design the workstation to perform as many operations as possible in a single spot. The concept is to perform as many functions as practical once a part is in your hand before setting it down or moving it to the next station.