CELLULAR MANUFACTURING AT 46 USER PLANTS - IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCESAND PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Despite the increasing popularity of cellular manufacturing, by now a firmly entrenched approach to factory work organization, the number of large-scale systematic studies aimed at investigating issues surround ing implementation is still relatively sparse. This paper reports on a survey study of plants involved with cellular manufacturing. A target population of high-probability users received mail questionnaires des igned to collect responses related to characteristics of industry cell s and the firms that have implemented them (a companion paper, based o n the same survey data, describes procedures and issues in cell design ). Forty-six plants supplied detailed data on 126 of their cells, incl uding reasons for establishing them, types of operations performed in the cells, problems faced and lessons learned during implementation, a nd achieved performance improvements. This study provides confirming e vidence that manufacturing cells, which may house a large variety and many combinations of processes, can provide substantial benefits with respect to strategic dimensions such as manufacturing lead time, custo mer response time and quality. It also supports the notion that implem enting cellular manufacturing is not merely an issue of rearranging th e factory layout, but more importantly an issue that involves and affe cts the organizational and human aspects of the manufacturing firm.