Using Cell Analysis as Part of the Lean Certification Procedure

By Charles Wheeler


The lean certification program consists of many foundations which cover a wide-range of manufacturing and business techniques. Lean training enables a manufacturing company to grow while keeping costs down, or maybe reducing costs by developing extremely effective method of growth.

One aspect of the lean certification process is grouping machines and labor into cells. Cells have the property of being a small subset of the overall manufacturing line. By creating cells, expansion can be done in incremental amounts.

These modules are also simpler to move. Once a cell has been created, it might be placed at different locations along the manufacturing line, or it may be relocated to another site all together. Therefore, creating these modular blocks is a major element of the lean manufacturing process.

When approaching a manufacturing line for the first time, the lean procedure is to do an analysis to see where cells can be set up. The usual way a manufacturing line is setup is to have one continuous flow from end-to-end.

In fact, the continuously running manufacturing line made sense, because it is efficient, as long as the product demand doesn't change. That is when the costs start to go up. Normally, a manufacturing line is designed to generate items at a certain rate, with certain allowable tolerances created in the design.

Additionally, a manufacturing line can grow old and inefficient, as technology advances and demand increases.

Cell analysis looks at the production line in terms of grouping things together, shortening travel distances, and putting intermediate inspection stations in place along the way. The goal is to create a self-sufficient unit whose output has been through a preliminary inspection, and which has the capability of altering the production rate quickly.

The usual boundaries of a cell are at existing machines that are already in the manufacturing line. Once the boundaries are identified, the equipment and the personnel inside that cell can be relocated or upgraded as required for growth or inspection.

A cell typically incorporates multiple machines, but sometimes a particularly large machine that has several operators is considered a cell all by itself. Sometimes, the controls on the machinery is a good starting point for automating the production process.

Inspection is an important factor to cell design, as well. Having a requirement for each module to have an output that is quality inspected is much more efficient that working with a single large inspection at the end of the procedure.

Setting up cells and making modular design a section of the lean training process is a important element in allowing growth while keeping costs under control in the manufacturing process.




About the Author: