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Management article
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Reference no. 90214
Published by: Harvard Business Publishing
Published in: "Harvard Business Review", 1990

Abstract

In 1986 Cummins Engine''s product line had greatly expanded. Its factories were producing an unprecedented amount of lower value parts. Cummins had already reorganized from job-shop (batch) manufacturing to dedicated machining cells. But total factory throughput was down because of the time it took cells to change over from one kind of part to another. Cummins focused the factory by volume as well as by part type. It developed five general classes of engine components, building a different manufacturing environment for each. The key in most cases was to add a computer-numerically-controlled machine to dedicated cells to handle eccentric changes in similar parts without the need for changeover.

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Abstract

In 1986 Cummins Engine''s product line had greatly expanded. Its factories were producing an unprecedented amount of lower value parts. Cummins had already reorganized from job-shop (batch) manufacturing to dedicated machining cells. But total factory throughput was down because of the time it took cells to change over from one kind of part to another. Cummins focused the factory by volume as well as by part type. It developed five general classes of engine components, building a different manufacturing environment for each. The key in most cases was to add a computer-numerically-controlled machine to dedicated cells to handle eccentric changes in similar parts without the need for changeover.

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