CAD/CAM/CIM

UNIT: II COMPUTER AIDED

PLANNING AND CONTROL

PART-1
GROUP TECHNOLOGY PART
FAMILIES PARTS CLASSIFICATION
AND CODING (OPTIZ, MICLASS)

09-Dec-13 1
 GROUP TECHNOLOGY-INTRODUCTION

Group Technology is a manufacturing technique

and philosophy to increase production efficiency
by exploiting the underlying sameness of
component shape, dimensions, process route,
etc.
Similar Parts are identified and grouped together
to take advantage of their similarities in
manufacturing and design.
To bring GT in to working environment,
classification and coding of parts is required.
This is required for identifying the similarities
and bring the classification code.
It is useful in design retrieval system and CAPP.
Grouping the production equipment into machine
cells, where each cell specializes in the
production of a part family, is called cellular
 GROUP TECHNOLOGY
:History
.year 30#
First documented by Mitrofanov,S.P. 1958, in his #
book "The Scientific Principles of Group
Technology
of the plants in USA expected to Use 70% - 50%#
?GT by 1990. But it has not happened. Why
!!!!Very few universities teach#
Many classification and coding systems #
.exist but no implementers
Major companies have their own #
. classification systems and GT
 Role of GT in CAD/CAM
A growing demand for closer tolerances #
resulting in need for more economical
means of working higher accuracies
.possible only with CAD/CAM
.Increased variety of materials #
Increasing proportion of cost, labor#
efficiency, lowering acceptance scrap
.rates
Rapid increase in no. and varieties of #
products, resulting in smaller lot sizes
GT affects most of the operating and staff function. It is more than
merely a technique, but a total Manufacturing philosophy.
DESIGN
DATA ENGINEERING
SALES
PROCESSING

MAINTENANCE INVENTORY

TOOL PLANNING
ENGINEERING

ESTIMATING PURCHASING

INDUSTRIAL ASSEMBLY
RELATIONS
QUALITY MANAGEMENT
CONTROL

R&D MFG.
ENGINEERING
COST GT SHIPPING &
ACCOUNTING RECEIVING
Why Group Technology?

Average lot size decreasing

Part variety increasing
Increased variety of materials with
diverse properties
Requirements for closer tolerances
Benefits of Group Technology (GT)

GT promotes standardiztion of
tooling, fixturing, and setups.
Material handling is reduced
because parts are moved within a
machine cell rather than within
the entire
Process factory. and production
planning
scheduling are simplified.
Setup times are reduced,
resulting in lower manufacturing
lead times
 Benefits Of Group Technology
Reductions in

Throughput time Capital expenditures

Set-up time Tooling costs
Overdue orders Engineering time & costs

Production floor space New parts design

Raw material stocks New shop drawings
In-process inventory Total no. of drawings
Other Benefits of Group Technology

Easier to justify automation

Standardization in design
Data retrieval
Easier, more standardized process plans
Increases in quality
Overview of Group Technology (GT)
Parts in the medium production quantity range are
usually made in batches
Disadvantages of batch production:
Downtime for changeovers
High inventory carrying costs
GT minimizes these disadvantages by recognizing that
although the parts are different, there are groups of parts
that possess similarities
GT exploits the part similarities by utilizing similar
processes and tooling to produce them
GT can be implemented by manual or automated
techniques
When automated, the term flexible manufacturing system is
often applied
Group Technology Defined
An approach to manufacturing in which similar
parts are identified and grouped together in order
to take advantage of their similarities in design and
production
Similarities among parts permit them to be
classified into part families
In each part family, processing steps are similar
The improvement is typically achieved by
organizing the production facilities into
manufacturing cells that specialize in production of
certain part families
Implementing Group Technology (GT)
There are two major tasks that a
company must undertake when it
implements Group Technology.
1.Identifying the part families. If the
plant makes 10,000 different parts,
reviewing all of the part drawings and
grouping the parts into families is a
substantial task that consumes a
significant amount of time.
2.Rearranging production machines into
cells. It is time consuming and costly to
plan and accomplish this
rearrangement, and the machines are
 Part Families
Collection of parts which are similar geometry, size,
processing
Parts which are similar in design or manufacturing
attributes are grouped into family (design part
family or manuf.part family)
i.e A group of parts that possess similarities in
geometric shape and size, or in the processing
steps used in their manufacture are grouped into
family
Part families are a central feature of group technology
There are always differences among parts in a family
But the similarities are close enough that the parts
can be grouped into the same family
Part Families
 Part Families

Ten parts that are different in size and shape, but

quite similar in terms of manufacturing
All parts are machined from cylindrical stock by
turning; some parts require drilling and/or
Milling.
Part Families
A part family is a collection of parts that are similar
either because of geometric shape and size or because
similar processing steps are required in their
manufacture.
The parts within a family are different, but their
similarities are close enough to merit their inclusion as
members of the part family.

Rotational part family requiring similar turning

operations
Part Families

Similar prismatic parts requiring similar milling

operations

Dissimilar parts requiring similar machining

operations (hole drilling, surface milling

Identical designed parts requiring completely

different manufacturing processes
 One of the important manufacturing
advantages of grouping work parts into
families can be explained with reference to
figures below
Grouping Part Families

There are three general methods for solving

part families grouping. All the three are time
consuming and involve the analysis of much
of data by properly trained personnel.

Ways to Identify Part Families - The three

methods are:
1. Visual inspection - using best judgment to group parts
into appropriate families, based on the parts or photos of the
parts
2. Parts classification and coding - identifying
similarities and differences among parts and relating them by
means of a coding scheme
3. Production flow analysis - using information
contained on route sheets to classify parts
A FAMILY OF PARTS
Production
Family
1- Visual Inspection
Method
The visual inspection method is the least
sophisticated and least expensive method.
It involves the classification of parts into
families by looking at either the physical
parts or their photographs and arranging
them into groups having similar features.
2- Parts classification and Coding

In parts classification and coding, similarities

among parts are identified, and these
similarities are related in a coding system.

Two categories of part similarities can be

distinguished:
1.Design attributes, which concerned with
part characteristics such as geometry,
size and material.
2.Manufacturing attributes, which
consider the sequence of processing
steps required to make a part.
Types of Classification And Coding Systems

GT coding can benefit many facets of the Firm and fall

into one of 3 categories:

1. Systems based on part design Attributes

2. Systems based on part mfg. Attributes
3. Systems based on design and mfg. Attributes
Examples:
Part Design Attributes Part Mfg. Attributes
Major dimensions Major process
Basic external shape Operation sequence
Basic internal shape Batch size
Length/diameter ratio Annual production
Material type Machine tools
Part function Cutting tools
Tolerances Material type
Surface finish
2- Parts classification and
Coding
Reasons for using a classification and coding
system:
1.Design retrieval. A designer faced with the
task of developing a new part can use a design
retrieval system to determine if a similar part
already exist. A simple change in an existing
part would take much less time than designing
a whole new part from scratch.
2.Automated process planning. The part code for
a new part can be used to search for process
plans for existing parts with identical or similar
codes.
3.Machine cell design. The part codes can be
used to design machine cells capable of
producing all members of a particular part
2- Parts classification and Coding

A part coding system consists of a

sequence of symbols that identify the
parts design and/or manufacturing
attributes.

The symbols are usually alphanumeric,

although most systems use only
numbers.

There are three basic coding

structures.
2- Parts classification and
Coding
The three basic coding structures are:
2.1 Chain-type structure, also known as a
polycode, in which the interpretation of each
symbol in the sequence is always the same, it
does not depend on the value of the
preceding symbols.
2.1 Polycode (Or Chain-type Structure)
In this method, the code digit represents one feature.
Thus, the value of any given digit (or position)
within the code has no relation to the other digits.
Example: A feature to be represented may be the
longest linear dimension.
The value of this digit may be represented by an
integer that is obtained by rounding off the length
(longest dimension) [in mm] of the part being coded.
What if we are dealing with parts longer than 9.5
mm?
We may need to reserve two (or more) digits for this
feature in that case.
2.1 Polycode (Or Chain-type Structure)
Advantages:
Easy to formulate
Each digit is independent of all others, presents
information not dependent on previous ones
Easier to accommodate change.
Disadvantages:
Less information is stored per digit; therefore to get a
meaningful comparison of, say, shape, very long
codes will be required.
Comparison of coded parts (to check for similarity)
requires more work.
2- Parts classification and
Coding
2.2 Hierarchical structure, also known as a
monocode, in which the interpretation of each
successive symbol depends on the value of the
preceding symbols.
2.2 Monocode (or hierarchical structure)
A code in which each digit amplifies the information
given in the previous digit.
Difficult to construct
Provides a deep analysis
Usually for permanent information

Here, each digit (or position) in the code represents a

feature/sub-group.
The first digit represents an entire group. The next
digit represents sub-groups of the feature, and so on.
In this sense, each subsequent digit is qualified by the
preceding digits (or, in an object-oriented sense, each
subsequent digit inherits the properties of the previous
digits).
Example:
Advantages of monocodes:
1. With just a few digits, a very large amount of
information can be stored
2. The hierarchical structure allows parts of the
code to be used for information at different levels of
abstraction.
Disadvantages:
1. Impossible to get a good hierarchical structure
for most features/groups
2. Different sub-groups may have different levels of
sub-sub-groups, thereby leading to blank codes in some
positions.
2- Parts classification and
Coding

2.3. Hybrid structure, a combination of

hierarchical and chain-type structures.