A MACHINE-PART BASED GROUPING ALGORITHM IN CELLULAR MANUFACTURING

A model and a suitable solution algorithm have been presented for determining optimal/near optimal part-machine clusters in cellular manufacturing. The total moves generated by parts have been evaluated as a weighted sum of both inter- and intracell moves. In particular, the intercell move has been evaluated as the number of bottle-neck machines a part is required to visit to complete its processing requirements. The in-cell machine utilization has been included as an important measure, and a targeted minimum utilization of 50% has been used for the purpose of application. A hypothetical problem has been developed and solved to test the effectiveness of the solution algorithm and the validity of the model. The results demonstrate that the model can be used as a suitable decision making tool by small and medium sized parts manufacturing companies in their production planning.