Cutco Cellular Layout

Cutco is a corporation that manufactures produces and sells cutlery to customers through in-home demonstrations by sales representatives. Their manufacturing of knives can date back to over one hundred years. People remember them as having the standard military knife that was seen in war. Cutco is a well-known corporation and customers buy their products because they know they can rely on their quality of their products. Cutco tries to follow the standard Six Sigma when trying to satisfy customers by trying to deliver nearly perfect products and services. They want to stay around 3.5 million defects per million, anything above that number would fall out of the range they are looking for. In order for these products to be put out to sell, then
they obviously must be manufactured first. Cutco has two different set of production processes for producing any of their products and any accessories that may come along with it. One is called a Mass production process which is just manufacturing a large volume of standardized products by using technology such as assembly lines. In this process, you want to produce your products efficiently, created at a low cost and with a small amount of workers. Mass production processes are geared to refill and keep the finished products in warehouses stocked. Mass manufacturing is based off of forecasts and sales which is what we learned in class when we were shown the quota that must be met at a per month basis. The other production process is called a Lean production process and its goal is to eliminate waste from the process and prizes quality and flexibility. By eliminating waste, manufacturers can produce higher quality products in a shorter amount of time. They are both similar in the fact they want to improve on quality, and reduce costs. Lean production produces products in small batches. The Lean Manufacturing Process of Cellular Manufacturing is used at Cutco when they are making sport utility knives. Here you have a type of lay out where each individual worker has their own station where they are processing or producing parts with similar requirements. Each cellular layout involved a worker that was cross trained. This layout or team was important because they were also trained to do more than one job which is known as cross training. Cross training is both beneficial to the company and employee it provides a safety measure for the company in the event that an employee quits their job or is absent for the day. Employees learn these jobs so that they will become less bored with their job, find more value in what they are doing and become more interested in the company. Here, there is a visual workplace where there are signs because it shows what each individual is doing all eight hours of the day.
This kind of process uses what is called a cellular layout which tries to combine the same ideas behind a product and process layout.
In a cellular layout, a company such as Cutco will group dissimilar machines into work centers called cells that process families of parts with similar shapes or processing requirements. Each cell at Cutco has its own job to do for the team before it can reach the next work station. One workstation could involve engraving knives with the Cutco logo, while the next involves sharpening the knife, and the next involves placing on the handle for the knife. This is a process that goes on at the corporation and involves a lot of inventory that is left around that can be seen by any worker/visitor that walks into the workplace. Although the cells are arranged in relation to one another to minimize material movement, there is still time spent walking to each station to retrieve material for the next workstation. The advantages for a cellular layout is that there is reduced set up time, reduced work in progress inventory, better use of human resources and it is easier to control and automate. Since most of the orders that are made at for particular customers then they are separated in trays so that it is easier to locate the product that is being
made.
Cellular layouts help in reducing waste by reducing the amount of defects that occur from processing and product changeovers. Lean production processes aim to cut costs by making the business more efficient and responsive to market needs. Eliminating waste essentially means lowering costs which is what businesses like Cutco look for in the manufacturing process. Some waste that can be eliminated are over-production where we make more than what is actually needed, or waiting time for a process to be completed before the next one can begin, and where the product does reach requirements or quality standards which is known as defects. In the production process companies like Cutco follow Six Sigma which is a process for developing and delivering virtually perfect products and services by optimizing process flow, increasing efficiency, determining what creates value for customers and removing waste. The goal for Six Sigma is to have 3.4 defects per million opportunities. This is a lot to ask for but it what the corporation should strive to do. Being a Cutco I only witnessed one defect that had to be written down in their report but it was something so minimal like re-sanding the wood block and staining it again. Six Sigma is an important process that company should strive for if they want to be competitive in their fields. TheMass Manufacturing Process of Continuous Flow Process is also used at Cutco when they are making wood blocks. They use what is universally known as job rotation which is similar to cross training but not the same. Job rotation requires cross training, but it involves the horizontal movement on the assembly line when they are producing wood blocks. This horizontal movement is based on a plan or schedule and each job has a max time limit for completing their part of their job. At Cutco no job lasts more than 30 seconds but there are jobs that get to the max time limit. These jobs are tiring jobs along the assembly line so at Cutco they schedule their lines in a way that is beneficial to every employee so that the guy who is stuck doing a rigorous job isn’t doing multiple ones in a row while others sit there and relax for twenty seconds of their thirty second shift. This sort of process is known as line balancing and creates flexibility for employees, reduces boredom and increases employee interest.
This type of process uses what we call product layouts (flow layout) which in definition arrange activities in a line according to the sequence of operations for a particular product or service.
In an assembly line the work moves in an efficiently and orderly manner from one workstation to the next until the finished product comes off from the end of the line. This layout is suitable for mass production where the demand for a product is stable and volume is high. The kinds of products that are made on the assembly line are products that are standard for a general market and not for a particular customer. If it were for a particular customer, they would be in the cellular layout. Here there is no signage used because each individual knows their job and know where they need to go at certain times of the day. The advantage of the product layout is the efficiency and the ease of its use. The only disadvantage that can be seen here is the inflexibility it has. Let’s say that the product design had to be changed, there would be a lot of time that will be wasted on trying to assembly a new line or fix the one that is already there. Although that is a disadvantage for the product layout, ere the cycle time and the flow time of the product are substantially low compared to a cellular layout because all hands are on deck and are working together. The level of inventory left on the floor is minimum if not any and there is no waste here when it comes to people walking around trying to
get products moved from one work station to the next. In a cellular layout, items that are completed at the above work station have to be physically picked up and moved to the next workstation by an individual. Cutco will continue to grow and be the top competitor in their market because they follow requirements and standards of their business to please the customer and satisfy their needs. They also do what is needed to provide top quality items while working efficiently. In the text it stated that in cellular layout employees learn their jobs so they will become less bored with their job even though to me as someone looking in from the outside I would disagree. If I had to sit in a chair all day long doing something repetitive, I would be bored and would want to do something else. Each layout shares their own difference but what they do have in common is that they are both cross-trained to perform multiple jobs which benefits the company and employee.