-In this paper we advocate the use of multi-agent systems in cellular manufacturing. More specifically, we argue that multi-agent systems can respond to the flexibility and adaptivity needs of modern manufacturing. The central issue of the design of such a multi-agent manufacturing system is the choice of the granularity level: are agents defined by decomposing the whole process across tasks or...

Mobile manufacturing is an enabler to increase the possibility to change and to adapt to altering needs, where the geographical position is not fixed. The main idea with the mobile manufacturing concept is to easily and quickly reuse manufacturing capacities between different orders or projects. This paper examines the concept of mobile manufacturing system by addressing issues related to manuf...

This paper provides a framework and a road map for people who are ready to transform their traditional production system from process orientation to cellular orientation, based on Axiomatic Design (AD) principles. A feedback mechanism for continuous improvement is also suggested for evaluating and improving the cellular design against preselected performance criteria. A complete implementation ...

Cellular production is maintained to be a popular manufacturing and management philosophy, which is increasingly interested and intensified. In this study, group technology cells design and implementation project in a real life glass mould production system is described. All the stages of the project, the difficulties encountered, the strategies developed that overcome these difficulties and th...

Cellular manufacturing systems (CMS) typically comprise a number of manufacturing cells served by a centralized material handling system. Designing such systems includes three major decisions; cell formation (CF), group layout (GL), and group scheduling (GS). Traditionally, these three decisions have been dealt with separately, which has usually lead to less than optimal system performance. In ...

Mass customization manufacturing (MCM) has been gaining recognition as an industrial revolution in the 21st century. This paper presents innovative approaches in realizing and exercising MCM in theoretical and practical applications. Strategies of generalized production line platform and modularization are explored to support dynamic reconfigurations of MCM. NIST’s XML-based Shop Data informati...

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies enable the fabrication of parts and devices that are geometrically complex, have graded material compositions, and can be customized. To take advantage of these capabilities, it is important to assist designers in exploring unexplored regions of design spaces. We present a Design for Additive Manufacturing (DFAM) method that encompasses conceptual design...

As computational systems scale to arbitrarily large sizes, and as they are expected to function reliably for arbitrary lengths of time, there are certain realities of the physical world that can not be ignored in the design and modeling of computational systems. For example, considerations for the delivery of power and removal of heat seem to limit the system to a two-dimensional surface. Addit...