Cellular Manufacturing

193

Epilogue: Cellular manufacturing

leadership—Imagination

and business growth

Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration

—Thomas Edison

Cellular manufacturing is about learning and growing the entire team

to reduce incidental work and increase output at a safe and consistent

pace. Cellular manufacturing focuses on the reduction of the nine deadly

wastes also referred to as muda:

1. Overproduction

2. Waiting

3. Transportation

4. Conveyance

5. Overprocessing

6. Incorrect processing

7. Excess inventory

8. Unnecessary movement

9. Defects

194 Epilogue

The objective is to improve protability and long-term growth and stabil-

ity. In cellular manufacturing, a change in one component of a product

(the heating element of a coffeemaker, for instance) has relatively little

inuence on the performance of other parts or the system as a whole.

In cellular manufacturing, the components are highly interdepen-

dent, and the result is nonlinear behavior: A minor change in one part

can cause an unexpectedly huge difference in the functioning of the over-

all system. With semiconductors, for example, a minuscule impurity (just

10 parts in a billion) can dramatically alter silicon’s resistance by a factor

of more than 10,000. Generally speaking, traditional manufacturing may

make R&D more predictable, but traditional manufacturing processes

tend to result in incremental product improvements instead of important

advances. Cellular manufacturing systems, on the other hand, are riskier

to work with, but they are more likely to lead to breakthroughs.

Remember what Thomas Edison said, “If we all did the things we are

capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”