of the combination layout. A group technology layout brings together dissimilar machines into work centers (or cells) to work on products that have similar shapes and processing requirements (Davis, Aquilano, Chase 254). Group technology (GT) as a manufacturing philosophy plays a major role in design standardization, manufacturing cell layouts, process planning, purchasing, and manufacturing technology design. One of the most significant ways to use GT is to facilitate significant reductions in design time and effort. A group technology (or cellular) layout allocates dissimilar machines into cells to work on products that have similar weights, shapes, and processing requirements. You can see group technology being used in metal fabricating, computer chip manufacture, and assembly work. Because group technology is similar to a process layout many companies may shift to a GT layout. When developing a GT cellular layout there are three steps that need to be followed: the first, grouping parts into families that follow a common sequence of steps. This means developing a classification and coding system that is designed for rapid retrieval of all design data pertaining to the manufacturing of the product. This is often a major expense with companies. The second identifying dominant flow patterns of parts-families as a basis for location or relocation of processes. Thirdly physically grouping machines and processes into cells. Often there are parts that can not be grouped or associated with any family in which they are placed in a remainder cell.In practice most layouts are combination layouts with product and process layouts being combined. There are also many other issues that need to be addressed such as the available space in the existing buildings, input, output and storage areas. Also noted the in process storage areas, proximity to utilities, arrangement to maximize shared resources, the consistent manufacture of quality ...
