This paper presents the idea of creating cells while reducing part-level sequence-dependent setup time in general cellular manufacturing systems (CMS). Setup time reduction in CMS has gained modest attention in the literature. This could be attributed to the fact that the fundamental problem in cell formation in CMS has been mainly related to material handling and machine utilization while setu...

Cellular manufacturing is a promising approach for grouping eeciency in manufacturing systems. Although this problem has been extensively studied in the literature, very few authors have proposed exact methods. The basic cellular manufacturing problem consists in deening cells which lead to the minimum number of bottleneck elements. In this paper, we consider a new formulation of the cellular m...

In this study, we highlight the impact of advanced new technical equipment on work design issues in a cellular manufacturing (CM) production environment. A large number of studies deal with the influence of technical systems on work design (e.g. Benders, 1993; McLoughin and Clark, 1994) or deal with work design issues in cellular manufacturing systems (e.g. Huber and Brown, 1991). However, as f...

  A fuzzy goal programming-based approach is used to solve a proposed multi-objective linear programming model and simultaneously handle two important problems in cellular manufacturing systems, viz. cell formation and layout design. Considerations of intra-cell layout, the intra-cell material handling can be calculated exactly. The advantages of the proposed model are considering machining cos...

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 ...

In recent years, artificial neural networks have been applied to solve a variety of problems in numerous areas of manufacturing at both system and process levels. The manufacturing applications of neural networks comprise the design of manufacturing systems (including part-family and machine-cell formation for cellular manufacturing systems); modeling, planning, and scheduling of manufacturing ...

Manufacturing has faced significant changes during the last years, namely the move from a local economy towards a global and competitive economy, with markets demanding for highly customized products of high quality at lower costs, and with short life cycles. In this environment, manufacturing enterprises, to remain competitive, must respond closely to customer demands by improving their flexib...

Over the last four decades of research, numerous cell formation algorithms have been developed and tested, still this research remains of interest to this day. Appropriate manufacturing cells formation is the first step in designing a cellular manufacturing system. In cellular manufacturing, consideration to manufacturing flexibility and productionrelated data is vital for cell formation....

Virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMS) have come into existence, replacing traditional cellular manufacturing systems (CMS), to meet highly dynamic production conditions in terms of demand, processing times, product mix and processing sequence. While cell formation phase of VCMS has been dealt quite voluminously, worker assignments phase has gained momentum recently after researchers sta...