Methods of manufacturing parts using a manufacturing cell

A method of manufacturing parts using a manufacturing cell comprises:

• laying out said cell to have a main aisle and a plurality of stations arranged in two rows such that said main aisle passes between said two rows;
• configuring each of said plurality of stations to have a station-aisle interface that provides an interface area to said main aisle so that a corresponding station operator is capable of performing a predefined function associated with said manufacturing cell at a station work area;
• locating a plurality of storage units within said cell along said main aisle, each storage unit dimensioned to store at least one cell container that holds one or more components associated with work flowing through said cell;
• using a guided forklift truck to traverse said main aisle without requiring steering control of a stock handler operating said forklift truck to relocate cell containers from said storage units to designated ones of said station-aisle interfaces to trigger inbound workflows to corresponding ones of said plurality of stations, and to remove containers from said designated ones of said plurality of station-aisle interfaces when work is completed at said corresponding ones of said plurality of stations;
• using two conveyors each having a platform that is tiltable in at least one of said plurality of stations;
• configuring each of said conveyors to have an end proximate to said station-aisle interface in said at least one of said plurality of stations;
• tilting either of said conveyors to a first position causes a container delivered by said forklift truck from said aisle to said platform to be biased by gravity to move toward said station work area;
• and
• tilting either of said conveyors to a second position causes a container delivered from said station work area to said platform to be biased by gravity to move toward said aisle for pickup by said forklift truck so that each of said two conveyors can be used to receive and return containers between said station work area and the station-aisle interface.