Group production

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The term group production stands for a type of production process and describes the logical-spatial arrangement of the machines in a production facility.

Often it is not possible to manufacture a product solely in flow production . Therefore, in practice, combinations of different manufacturing processes are being used more and more frequently, in which a group of employees is given responsibility for the production of a product, assembly or part family . All workplaces and machines that are required for production are combined into a production group in which the employees take responsibility for controlling and organizing production. This is called a "flowing island". The subsequent merging of the individual products of the manufacturing groups results in the entire complete product.

This production meets the idea of ​​a humane workplace, because the individual employees keep track of the entire production process. The motivation of the workforce is increased by working in several changing functions. In addition, this type of production strengthens personal responsibility and thus leads to an increase in quality. In addition to high technical qualifications, it also requires communication and teamwork skills from employees. However, the question of fair wages within the group and the psychological pressure on individual group members can be problematic.

Advantages of the procedure

  • The reduction in transport routes results in lower internal transport costs
  • The storage costs are reduced by the lower storage of intermediate stocks
  • The production process is easier to understand and therefore easier to organize and rationalize
  • Very beneficial in terms of motivation, ability to work in a team and willingness to cooperate of the employees as well as the resulting lower sick leave
  • Employees learn to take on various tasks in their group

Disadvantages of the procedure

  • Reduced adaptability to changed operational and market situations, but still more flexible than flow production
  • Requires a new "generalist" type of employee who is not specialized in a specific area
  • Individual components are multiple, namely in each group
  • The utilization is worse than in the workshop production

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