Manufacturing island

Production island near Boge to Schumann / Wagner

As production island (ger .: production cell) is known in the production logistics a possibility of internal flexibility . It is a work system that is structured according to the products to be manufactured and not according to tasks. Typically, all equipment required for a family of parts is integrated into a production island.

With this process principle , a team of employees produces components or end products that are as finished as possible. This prevents the production process from being segmented into many monotonous work steps. There is no sorting according to the performance principle , the order of processing is decided flexibly.

The result of the combination of flexible production organization and semi-autonomous work groups is, for example, an assembly island or a product island. In it, product parts or end products are manufactured or assembled as completely as possible from the given starting material. The necessary resources are combined spatially and organizationally in the production island. In addition to the actual production task, the field of activity of the group employed there usually bears the following additional characteristics: extensive self-control of work and cooperation processes, combined with planning, decision-making and control functions as well as simple maintenance tasks.

Core idea

The Taylorist principle of separating planning and executing activities is abandoned by manufacturing islands by dispensing with a strict, predetermined division of labor . The manufacturing process is carried out through extensive self-control. In this way, the motivation and personal responsibility of the employees should be increased (see also: work structuring ). A tendency towards poorer utilization of the means of production compared to higher flexibility and workforce utilization is accepted.

Selection of production islands

When selecting production islands, various, partly statistical analysis methods are used, for example cluster analyzes or Sankey diagrams . In addition, criteria such as the order volume, number of variants, processing times and production costs must be taken into account when identifying potential production islands.

synchronization

A distinction is usually made between two types of synchronization of the information and material flow in production islands : on the one hand, the collect principle , on the other hand the bring principle (see also: push-pull strategy ). For planning in PPS systems , the island has its own capacity, which makes planning easier and reduces the central planning effort, since short-term planning is relocated to the island.

literature

Dieter Wagner, Rolf Schumann: The product island. TÜV-Media, Cologne 1991, ISBN 978-3-88585-989-5 .

Individual evidence

^ Kurt Landau : production islands. In: Kurt Landau (Hrsg.): Lexikon Arbeitsgestaltung. Best practice in the work process. Genter, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-87247-655-5 . P. 543f.
^ Klaus Thaler: Supply Chain Management. Process optimization in the logistics chain. 5th edition. Eins, Troisdorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-933430-53-3 . P. 35

[1] Kurt Landau : production islands. In: Kurt Landau (Hrsg.): Lexikon Arbeitsgestaltung. Best practice in the work process. Genter, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-87247-655-5 . P. 543f.

[2] Klaus Thaler: Supply Chain Management. Process optimization in the logistics chain. 5th edition. Eins, Troisdorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-933430-53-3 . P. 35