A nonlinear model for capacity allocation and throughput determination in cellular manufacturing systems

The ability of modern manufacturing systems to be operated profitably at different output levels (volume flexibility) is one of their advantages. With volume flexibility, the decision maker must decide on each time capacity allocation among products and the throughput of the manufacturing system for each. When sufficient time capacity to produce at throughputs that minimize unit costs exists, the problem is solved by doing so. The problem is more difficult when time capacity is insufficient to produce at throughputs resulting in minimum unit costs. In this paper, a product mix problem (PMP) for cellular manufacturing systems is formulated. The decision variables of the PMP are: (a) the time capacity to allocate to each product, and (b) the throughput of the manufacturing cell for each product. A polynomial time algorithm to solve a special case of the PMP is developed and the results are illustrated with numerical examples.