• Plating cell: The connectors are plated in a centralized process which represents a bottleneck in the production flow. Thus, this flow is organized by smoothed period batch control, adjusting the starting times of production of each batch smoothly along the time scale through the working week. Information and Control Based on this concept of factory planning, information flow and control have to change in this factory in comparison to traditional production planning practices. The planning scenario is as follows: The material manager receives all orders from customers. He identifies the product families and sorts them by groups. The resulting job list is transferred to the cells via the computer network. Subsequently, an operations list is scheduled with assistance by the computer system and/or manually. Basic rules for an optimized sequence of orders are available in the cell software. Once the load is in the range of 100%, the cell members microschedule the operations list. They check and adjust all the used data, paying special attention to the setup times. These times are important for small- to medium-sized batch production because they reduce the utilization times of the machinery. Once the operator thinks that he has found the best sequence, he simulates it on the computer. The material manager at the factory level does not control the decisions in the cell. His task is the balancing of orders between the available cells; if a cell rejects a planned job, he would have to find a different cell to do the job. Shop Floor Tasks According to this cell-based production concept, there are many new tasks which have to be performed by the cell team on the shop floor. The team working in the cell may have to perform the following tasks on the shop floor: • Planning the work for the week • Preparing the work and setting the machines • Producing the different parts • Quality and performance control • Management of tools, raw materials, etc. • Maintenance and minor repairs of machine tools Thus, the strategy aims at giving shop floor personnel an increasing degree of responsibility — not only for technical aspects of production, but also for organizational and planning tasks. This strategy is at present being implemented on a large scale all over Europe, characterized by its enterprisewide introduction. Workflows for Shop Floor PPC The Concept of Workflows This example has shown that a procedural and top-down control perspective does not fit in with the concept of today’s flexible cell-based manufacturing organizations. Therefore, a new concept is needed for looking at production planning and control (PPC) across the plant: e.g., linking the different pro- duction cells as customer–supplier chains. This concept is called workflow. A workflow, similar to activities in coordination and control, is a unit of work that happens repeatedly in an organization of work. However, there is a difference from traditional control concepts; in workflow concepts, processes get completed that are related to, or result in, customer satisfaction. In fact, every workflow has a customer who may be an external customer of the company or another workgroup or individual within the organization (an internal customer). The resulting enterprise model sees the entire organization as a chain of customers and suppliers, starting from the external customer (market), through the front-office units, to the internal production cells and to other back offices and service departments [4]. © 2001 by CRC Press LLC . available in the cell software. Once the load is in the range of 100%, the cell members microschedule the operations list. They check and adjust all the used data, paying special attention to the setup. sequence, he simulates it on the computer. The material manager at the factory level does not control the decisions in the cell. His task is the balancing of orders between the available cells; if. cell may have to perform the following tasks on the shop floor: • Planning the work for the week • Preparing the work and setting the machines • Producing the different parts • Quality and performance