Design of Manufacturing Cells with Two- Phase Model and A Heuristic Algorithm

A Two-phase model for configuring a cellular manufacturing system is proposed. In phase (I), for the first time, number of cells is considered as a decision variable. In phase (II), pursing two different objectives, one minimization of underload and the other, maximization of similarity of parts within a group, the design procedure is performed. As one cannot have these two objects together, a heuristic algorithm based on cellular similarity coefficient and integration of two objects is proposed. The results confirmed that the proposed heuristic procedure has reasonable outcomes. Keywords: manufacturing cell, cellular similarity coefficient, two-phase model, heuristic algorithm