Group technology in the US manufacturing industry: A survey of current practices

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 53 US users of group technology (GT). Respondent installations were medium to large electronics and metalworking manufacturers. They engaged predominantly in fabrication activities, producing a large number of component parts and/or end items. These firms applied GT to design, process planning (including NC programming), sales, purchasing, cost estimation, tooling, scheduling, new equipment sizing, and tool selection. In the majority of cases, firms used classification and coding systems as tools in applying GT. While users identified managerial and technical barriers which must be overcome in successfully applying GT, significant and varied operational and strategic benefits had been achieved. Further, most felt that GT would be an integral and important part of future CAD/CAM activities at their plant. The respondents' experiences confirm that GT's usefulness is quite broad and suggest that failure to understand GT as a general philosophy and, instead, to consider it a tool or equate it with a specific use, may result in lost opportunities to improve manufacturing productivity. A second paper, based on the same survey data, describes these manufacturers' experiences with cellular manufacturing (Wemmerlov and Hyer 1989).