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Business Administration QUESTION #9595
Question 1
A Work Cell layout clusters dissimilar machines into a 'cell' that completes an entire family of parts. Compared to a process layout, which specific performance improvement does a work cell most directly achieve?
  • Higher machine utilization rates — because work cells consolidate all machines in one area, reducing idle time across the plant
  • Reduced setup time, lower work-in-process inventory, faster throughput and simpler scheduling — because related parts move through a dedicated cell without travelling across the plant to different functional departments✔️
  • Greater product variety — because work cells can be reconfigured more quickly than functional departments
  • Elimination of quality defects — because cellular manufacturing assigns quality responsibility to a team rather than distributing it across functional departments
Correct Answer Explanation
Work cells (cellular manufacturing) achieve lean production benefits by: (1) grouping machines that process a part family into one cell, (2) eliminating inter-department travel and queuing, (3) reducing WIP inventory, (4) simplifying scheduling to within-cell routing, and (5) reducing setup times through part family similarity. Machine utilization may actually be lower (cells have dedicated machines that may idle), but throughput time and WIP improvements are the primary benefits.