Developing Capability -Based Virtual Cellular Manufacturing Systems and Comparison with Capability -Based Classical Cellular Manufacturing Systems

摘要

This paper is an attempt to develop capability-based Virtual Cellular Manufacturing (VCM) systems and comparing the performance of such systems with classical Cellular Manufacturing Systems (CMS) in the point of travelling distances by parts. In this paper, VCM systems are formed through solving a multi-objective mathematical model with the goal programming approach focused on the part-machine virtual cell formation problem, which groups parts and machines simultaneously to generate virtual cells. These cells are designed by considering machines capabilities with the aid of Resource Element (RE) approach to define processing requirements of parts and processing capabilities of machines and to take into account the overlapping capabilities among machines and optional machines to process parts.