Editorial

摘要

This special issue is based on papers presented at the 2nd Group Technology/ Cellular Manufacturing World Symposium held in Columbus, Ohio, USA on 28-30 July 2003. The symposium brought researchers from academia and industry together to discuss cellular manufacturing (CM) issues in depth. Besides being a classical area for academic research, cellular manufacturing continues to play a significant role in productivity improvement efforts in manufacturing and increasingly in the service industry. At the same time, CM continues to evolve both with respect to design and control issues. New classes of cellular designs emerge and new control techniques are developed to further improve the efficiency of the manufacturing systems.