Design of Cellular Manufacturing Systems for Multiple Periods usingSystem-Dependent Reconfigurations and Routing Flexibility

摘要

Shorter product life-cycles, unpredictable demand, and customized products have forced manufacturing firms to operatemore efficiently and effectively to adapt to changing requirements. Job shops and flow lines cannot handle suchenvironments. Cellular manufacturing has been seen as a promising alternative for such cases. Existing design methodsemploy simplifying assumptions which often deteriorate the validity of the models used for obtaining solutions.Two simplifying assumptions often used in existing design methods are as follows. First, product mix and demanddo not change over the planning horizon. Second, each operation can be performed by only one machine type, i.e.,routing flexibility of parts is not considered. This research presents an optimization model for designing cellular manufacturingsystems faced with a multi-period planning horizon using system-dependent reconfigurations and routingflexibility. A commercial optimization package is used to solve small problem instances, and a comparative study isconducted to illustrate potential of the approach.