A STUDY ON THE INTEGRATION OF LEAN PRODUCTION

AND GROUP TECHNOLOGY

Yanhai Hu, Feifan Ye, Zhimei Fang
Faculty of Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China 3 15211
E-mail: yanhaidD0.nbu.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
In this paper, Group Technology and Lean Production,

two kinds of very productive theories in the production

organization and management, are analyzed. The
adaptability whether these two theories can be
integrated is discussed. The Lean Production model
based on Group Technology and its benefits to
enterprises are proposed. An enterprise that is
actualizing Lean Production based on Group
Technology is presented and analyzed. The principles
of collectivity programming, across-the-board
training, benefits driving, and step by step
implementing are brought out.
Key w o r m
Group Technolo@ Lean Production,
batch
production2 Production
Managementi Enterprise Business Re-engineering

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays Customers need customized and diversified
products. A lot of manufacturers are producing more
and more kinds of products in less and less batch.
However if the small batch products are produced in
Mass Production (MP), the cost must be high,
production cycle must be long. So how to lower the
production cost, shorten the production cycle in Batch
ProductionOBPO is an important project that is being
researched in many countries at this time. Experts put
forward quite a few methods that may resolve this
problem. Among these, Group Technology (GT) and
Lean Production (LP) are two fruitful theories in
production organization and management. But usually
they are used separately. If GT can be integrated into
LP, it may put forth the advantages of LP more
completely, and lower the production cost, shorten the
cycle, and improve the product quality more.

2. INTEGRATION OF LP AND GT
The main idea of GT is to divide parts into different
families in their design, manufacturing and

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management of production according to the similarity

of parts in design or process by coding technology so
as to obtain the effect of MP [l]. The main idea of LP
is to eliminate any waste in all production phases
including design, manufacturing, sales, inventory, etc
as much as possible. The three main principles of LP
are [2-41: (1) Just In Time (JIT). The delivery or
marketing time of products is the start of production.
Material balance and zero inventory are emphasized.
Production is organized according to Kanban systems.
The production rhythm can be controlled artificially.
Purchased parts and components are supplied on time
when they are used. (2) Total Quality Management
(TQM). It accentuates that the quality is produced out,
rather than checked out. The final quality is ensured by
the quality management during production. The
checking of quality is going at every process so as to
the defective can be found as soon as possible. If there
is defective on the production line, the whole line can
be stopped immediately so that the defective wont be
manufactured more. (3) Concurrent Engineering (CE).
From the very beginning, designers think about the life
cycle of the product. The production phrases are
overlapped. That shortens the production time greatly,
and also enables the information to be communicated
on time during production, so that problems can be
solved as soon as possible. These all contributed to
high product quality.
There are two reasons for integrating GT and LP. One
is that they both suit for Batch Production. The other is
that the management layers they apply are different.
GT faces the actual operation layer of design,
manufacturing and inventory of parts and components.
LP faces the management strategy layer of design,
production, supplying, sales and inventory of products.
They can reinforce each other very well. So in a word,
they can cooperate very well.

3. LP MODEL BASED ON GT

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Before we study the LP model based on GT, let us

discuss traditional production procedure first, as shown
in figure 1.
Ordering
Mnkact

with high responsibility to pursue zero defective;

Delivery

Marketing
forecast

Marketing
Scheduling of design,
manufacturing,
assembly,debugging

Marketing

Marketing

I
I
:

Scheduling

design,
manufacturing,
assembly,

Purchasing parts
&components

of 4-------Purchasing parts
& components

dl
I

Manufacturing parts
%components

I
Checking

Assembly, debugging

Figure 1 traditional production procedure

From this figure, we can see (1) the traditional
production procedure is sequential, rather than
concurrent (2) every work needs to be checked by
another checker after it is finished, rather than the
worker himself (3) parts and components are
manufactured and purchased ahead of time, then they
are put into the warehouse, so the inventories need
workforce to manage and maintain, also the inventories
occupy funds. From the above analysis, it can be
educed that the traditional production procedure has
disadvantages of long production cycle and high cost.
Now let us see Lean Production based on Group
Technology. The model is shown as Figure 2. This
production method makes use of three LP principles
(1) JIT. Before product is developed, its delivery or
marketing time must be confirmed first. Then the
Scheduling of design, manufacturing, assembly,
debugging of the product will be decided according to
the terminal time by pull method. Parts and
components are manufactured and purchased just in
time when they are used to avoid the occupation of
bankroll and the waste in inventory management (2)
TQM. Every work including scheduling, design,
process
planning,
production
preparation,
manufacturing, purchasing, assembly, debugging, etc
should employ TQM principle. Each department and
each employee must finish the own work excellently

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Group Technology

Figure 2 Lean Production model based on Group Technology

(3) CE. From the scheduling of design, manufacturing,
assembly, debugging on, the principle of CE should be
used as much as possible. The life cycle of the product
including quality, cost, schedule, customer needs, and
the recycle of the product should be considered at that
time. The phases of product development art:
overlapped. When the structure of the nonstandard
parts and components are designed, the process
planning, the preparation of the machine, tools, fixture
and materials should be done at the same time.
The employment of GT will help to accomplish these
LP principles very well. First of all, The employmenx
of GT will shorten the time of the process planning,
and the time to prepare machines, tools, fixture,
measuring tools, materials to manufacture the parts by
selecting the same design or revising the similar design
in PDM according to the code of the parts, also the
time to manufacture parts can be controlled by rule and
line. So JIT can be accomplished more precisely.
Secondly, the employment of GT will make the design,

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manufacturing and checking of the parts more easily.

Since there is same or similar design, process, fixture,
measuring tools, the possibility to make mistakes in
these works is lowered. Their qualities can be
controlled more easily. The volume of these kinds of
work will be lowered marvelously. These will all help
to accomplish TQM. Thirdly, if CE is employed, the
following processes can be thought about ahead of
time, because there is same or similar design, process
planning of the parts, and the design of the tools,
fixture, measuring tools. So CE can be accomplished
better.
From the above analysis, it can be seen that GT can
help to accomplish the main principles of LP
comprehensively. LP based on GT has wonderful
advantages over the traditional production procedure. It
will promote the competitive ability of manufacturing
enterprises greatly

4. A CASE STUDY
A punch company in East Zhejiang, China has
accomplished this production method to a large extent.
The procedure is as following. First, the company
programmed the new method of production
management to be accomplished as a whole, and
planed
rational
approach
for
step-by-step
implementing. Second, all employee are trained at
different levels according to the above programming to
understand the new method deeply. Third, effects are
focused on. Focusing on effects is the center of the
management philosophy of this company. Up to now,
this company has accomplished CE, TQM and GT, and
has obtained obvious achievements. The detailed
implementation procedure is (1) GT. All nonstandard
parts have been coded. Product Data Management file
(PDM) has been constructed. The structural design,
process planning, production preparation, and
manufacturing of new parts were all done by selecting
same or similar technological documents in PDM
according to the codes of the parts. So the fares and
cycles to design and manufacture the parts were
reduced greatly and also the management of the parts
became convenient. ( 2 ) TQM. This company has paid
much attention to the cultivation of Company Culture.
Every employee agrees Product quality is produced by
me, is taken charge of by me, Same defectives are

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not allowed to take place the second time, Previous

defectives are not allowed to flow down to the
following process from the bottom of their hearts.
Every employee work with high responsibility
consciously.0 (3) CE. Some parts and components with
long purchasing or manufacturing cycles and relatively
stable structures are ordered or manufactured ahead
before the whole set of drafts are finished so that the
production cycle of the products are shortened very
much. During purchasing and manufacturing, the
departments of manufacturing, supply, and design
communicate at any time so that problems are solved
betimes
After these management technologies were used, the
production cycles of products have been shorten a lot,
the defective rate and rework rate have been lowered
greatly, the product costs have fallen much, and the rate
that products are delivered on time is improved to a
great extent. These days, this company is undertaking
purchasing and manufacturing parts and components
just in time. It is planned that the inventory time of
parts and components of 30 days on average will be
shortened to 5 days.
From the above case study, it can be concluded that a
company wants to accomplish LP based on GT must
abide by the principles of collectivity programming,
across-the-board training, benefits driving, step by step
implementing. Before implementation, all employee
fiom managers to workers must be trained so that they
completely understand the technological specialties,
conditions of accomplishment, benefits it may bring,
difficulties that may be met. The aim is to reduce the
obstacles to accomplish the production method. GT
and LP are two theories in production management
area. Their essentials can be implemented separately.
As to which one to be implemented, when to
implement, it lies on the conditions. The
implementation of every essential must surround the
collectivity programming of the company to achieve
LP based on GT in the end.

5. CONCLUSION
From the above analysis, it can be seen that by contrast
to traditional production method, LP based on GT will
shorten production cycle, reduce particular checking
process, lower inventory, improve product quality, and

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cut product cost. But implementing LP based on GT

must abide by the principles of collectivity
programming, across-the-board training, benefits
driving, step by step implementing. Implement one
essential, only when its conditions are sufficient. The
aim is to pursue the biggest benefits of the whole
company.

REFERENCES
[l] Y. Chen, X. Wang, X. Huang, Practical Group
Technology, Beijing: Mechanical Industry Press, ch. 1,
pp. 3-7, 1992.
[2] J. P. Womack, D. T. Jones, D. Roos, The Machine
That Changed the World, New York: Rawson
Associatea pp. 48-137,225, 1990
[3] L. Zhang, Lean Production, Industrial
Engineering and Management, vol. 2, no 2, pp. 1216, April 1997.
[4] J. Wang, X. Zang, E Zhu, Lean Production of
Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Journal of
Yanshan University, vol. 22, no 2, pp. 176-178, April
1998

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