How to Design Shop Floor Cells to Reduce Lead Times for Custom Products

Improve Product Flow to Increase Profitability and Grow Market Share

In companies with a high variety of low-volume products, designing product-focused shop floor cells can be a challenge. Fluctuating volumes, variable product routings, and complex machining requirements make it hard to justify a cell with dedicated machines and labor. The result: an inefficient product flow causing large backlogs, excess inventory, poor delivery performance, expediting, and long lead times.

Over the past three decades, the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) in collaboration with its member companies has developed several tools and principles to design shop floor cells for high-mix, low-volume manufacturing settings.

What you will learn:

• Where to start: Focused Target Market Segment – the nucleus of a production cell
• Designing the cell: Analyzing product routings, determining equipment and labor for the cell
• Addressing challenges: Shared resources, subcontracting
• Capacity planning for the cell: Lot sizes, utilization, lead times, inventory
• Identifying improvement opportunities: Impact of setup reduction and cross-training
• Financial justification: Costs and benefits of the cell implementation

Join us to learn how to address challenges such as product mix variations, lack of ownership on shared resources, sub-contracting issues, and challenges with lot sizing and MRP scheduling. Learn about results from cell implementations that have led to over 80% reduction in production lead times, 50% reduction in inventory, and 15-20% reduction in product costs.

Shop floor cells: An integral part of the QRM strategy

• QRM fundamentals and the role of your organizational structure
• Key aspects of QRM cells

Where to start: Focused Target Market Segment – the nucleus of a cell

• What is the motivation for creating the cell?
• Ways to identify a Focus Target Market Segment
• Case studies on FTMS creation

Designing the cell: Analyzing products, determining equipment and labor

• How to define part families
• Group workshop: determine rough cell design (part families, equipment, staffing)

Addressing challenges: Shared resources, sub-contracting

• Common concerns with cells (low return on costly assets, cell ownership of shared resource etc.) and how to overcome them

Capacity planning for the cell: Lot sizes, utilization, lead times, inventory

• How to support cells by understanding system dynamics principles
• Cell planning with rapid modeling
• Group workshop: Dynamic analysis of a cell
• Identifying improvements: Impact of setup reduction, cross-training

Financial justification: Costs and benefits of the cell implementation

• Strategic justification of cells
• How to calculate costs and benefits
• Ways to to show the impact of transformation
• Powerful “non-financial” benefits: the impact of employee ownership

James Rink

Dr. Rink brings over 35 years of experience in manufacturing, advanced technology, and operational excellence. Throughout his career, he has led global teams in China, Europe, the US, Mexico, and India, driving collaboration, enhancing manufacturing competitiveness, and achieving exceptional results. His tenure at Caterpillar spanned 31 years, concluding in roles as General Manager and Multi-site Operations Manager. Over the past five years, he has successfully managed his own consulting firm, Integrity 360 Leadership, delivering strategic manufacturing insights to companies such as Oshkosh, McNeilus Truck, and L&T Technology Services (LTTS).

Additionally, Jim has served as an adjunct faculty member at Bradley University, teaching manufacturing processes, and currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Colllege of Business' Organizational Leadership department at Lewis University.

Jim has a diverse educational background, holding a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in manufacturing systems engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, an MBA from Northern Illinois University, and a doctorate in Interdisciplinary Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship from Governors State University.

Beyond his professional achievements, Jim is actively involved in his community, serving on the advisory board for the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the Unviersity of Wisconsin–Madison, and holding director roles on his local Workforce Investment Board and regional economic devleopment organization.