Production Flow Analysis for Planning Group Technology

In recent years there has been much effort directed towards a critical examination and reappraisal of traditional methods in manufacturing plants. Group technology and production flow analysis have emerged from this reappraisal as one of the major strategic tools available to manufacturing analysts. Instead of basing the classification and coding of parts into families by analyzing design drawings, production flow analysis creates families by analyzing "route cards", which show how parts are made. The author of this text explains that by using this method, manufacturers can achieve a total division of manufactured components into families and a parallel total division of the existing machines into groups. The techniques of production flow analysis can reduce set-up times in manufacturing processes and the need for buffering stocks of components. They are also well suited to new labour ideas, as they allow groups of workers to undertake a larger part of the manufacturing process.