PONTE Vol. 78 No. 2, 2022 Florence, Italy ISSN: 0032-423X E-ISSN:0032-6356 International Journal of Sciences and Research 15 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6789333 PROCESS IMPROVEMENT FOR TRADITIONAL MOULD MAKING PROCESS THROUGH GROUP TECHNOLOGY AND RANK-ORDER CLUSTERING ALGORITHM ABSTRACT The current environment of changing market trends that include mass customization, sustainability, environmental impact and localized production drives the manufacturing industry to strive for additive manufacturing because of the versatility of the technology. Injection Moulding Company (IMC) is using traditional manufacturing approaches which compromise its competitiveness resulting in decreased production rate and high operational costs due to lengthy changeover times. The aim of the study was to investigate the usage of group technology and rank- order clustering algorithm as mechanisms to aid the reduction of manufacturing lead time for the traditional mould making process. ABC mould demand classification analysis conducted for the top 16 moulds revealed that the moulds for the switch cover ranked highest in terms of the demand of moulds that were fabricated by IMC. The value stream map revealed that there was room for improvement in terms of push to pull and frequent lot transfer, standardising work, reducing cutting time and process scrap, as well as introducing poka yokes and cellular manufacturing, and it was proposed to reduce material movements and setup times. Through the deployment of group technology and rank clustering algorithm, three mould families and three machine cells were derived. As a result, the mould fabrication process was improved by reducing material movements and reducing setup times. Keywords: Group technology, Rank-order clustering algorithm. 1. INTRODUCTION The current environment of changing market trends that include mass customization, sustainability, environmental impact and localized production drives the manufacturing industry to strive for additive manufacturing because of the versatility of the technology (Francis 2018). Rapid tooling is described as the fast production of parts or tools such as mould inserts for traditional manufacturing such as investment and vacuum casting (Equbal, Sood and Shamim 2015). Vertical integration at IMC is fundamentally considered as vital since it gives the organisation some robust degree of control over its operations, having increased market control, and an ability to offer lower prices. Considering the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, vertical integration for IMC conveys a possible advantage over its competitors since *Mendon Dewa Durban University of Technology Department of Industrial Engineering South Africa mendond@dut.ac.za ORCID: 0000-0002-0061-3654 * Corresponding author Uttam Bhana Pancha Durban University of Technology Department of Industrial Engineering South Africa Uttam@mweb.co.za