Facilitating Flow - Cellular layout

Traditional manufacturing was characterised by ‘isolated islands’ or ‘process villages’, where one kind of equipment was co-located & material had to travel from one ‘isolated island’/ ‘process village’ to next in large batches. Of course, such an arrangement originated from the logic of maximising the productivity of each individual operation in a process.

Toyota made a genuine revolution in thinking when they defined Muda. There were 7 kinds of Muda identified in the Toyota Production System. When each kind of Muda was identified in a manufacturing process, and reduced step by step, what emerged as the best solution was a cellular layout. This innovation produced remarkable results in discrete product manufacturing. Typical results being:
1. Doubling of manpower productivity
2. 90%+ reduction in WIP & Throughput time
3. Drastic reduction in floor space requirement
4. 50%+ reduction in defects/ rework

This revolution provided a significant competitive advantage to early adopters in Japan and, in conjunction with some other kaizen methods, became the secret behind swift rise of Japan as a competitive force in the latter half of the 20th century.

This program intends to familiarise trainees with the basic concepts of cellular layout design so that they are enabled to do so in real-life situations.