Change to group technology: process organization is obsolete

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Abstract
The traditional type of organization for manufacturing is process organization, in which organizational units each specialize in a particular process. This is gradually being replaced by product organization; in the form of either continuous line flow (CLF), or group technology (GT). Group technology (GT) is a method of organization for manufacturing, in which the organizational units (groups) complete all the parts they make at their particular processing stage, and are equipped with all the machines and other facilities they need to do so. CLF is the preferred type of organization for process industries, and for a few cases of mass production in other types of industry. GT is the preferred type of organization for batch and jobbing production. This paper submits that if ’Production flow analysis’ (PFA) is used to plan the division into GROUPS of machines and associated FAMILIES of parts, then it is always possible in batch and jobbing production, to find a total division into groups, with very few exceptions and with no back-flow or cross-flow between groups. It bases this submission on 33 listed examples from practice, and on the observation that because most routeing data is very flexible, it would be very surprising if one ever found a case where GT was impossible. As GT is always possible where it is appropriate, and can always lead to major increases in efficiency, it follows that process organization is obsolete.

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