Development of a GT Coding System for POSCO
Kwangsoo Kim, Hyungjun Park, Chul-Han Kim, and Jin-Ho Kim
Abstract
Group Technology(GT) is a manufacturing philosophy in which similar parts
are identified and grouped together to take advantage of their similarities in
manufacturing and design. Parts classification and coding is concerned with
identifying the similarities among parts and relating these similarities to a
coding system. The purpose of this study is to construct a GT coding scheme
for the Maintenance Control Department at POSCO and to propose a methodolgy
with which the process planning can be efficiently handled regardless of types
of maintenance work. The GT code with the hybrid structure is composed of 14
digits. Parts are coded based on the following features: part name, part size
and weight, part geometry, main operations, heat treatment, accuracy, and
material. In the process planning of a part manufacture, the standard process
plan of a part family classified by the GT code can be used. But in case of
the part repair, it is very difficult to generate the standard process plan.
To deal with this difficulty, we maintain the existing process planning history
for the repair parts. When a part repair is needed, the part is classified to
get a GT code and the process plan is obtained by searching the process
planning history file for the code. Based on the GT coding scheme and
methodology for the process planning, a process planning system is developed.
With this system, any process planning of the part manufacture and repair can
be handled with ease. Morever, part information such as GT codes and process
plans can be efficiently maintained.
Keywords: Group Technology, Coding and Classification, Process Planning
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