Cellular Manufacturing is a way to layout processes and equipment as a single close-together unit or “cell.” A U-shaped arrangement is often the starting point for design because it provides an intuitive direction for incoming and outgoing material and products and allows for people to move easily from one job to another.

To create cellular arrangement, analyze the flow of material through processes and equipment. Then to understand how people interact with these as well as with one-another. The key is to constantly eliminate distance time and space. Work-In-Process (WIP) inventory especially is reduced in cellular manufacturing.

The objective of cellular flow is to minimize the movement of material and maximize people’s skill versatility to balance the work and enable good takt time (the cadence at which material flows).