Designing flexable manufacturing cells using a branch and bound method

The grouping of parts into families and machines into cells poses an important problem in the design and planning of the flexible manufacturing cells. This paper presents a new method of forming flexible manufacturing cells, based on branching from seed machine and bounding on a completed part. This method creates a number of alternative solutions based on the presence of a seed part which will enhance the flexibility of the manufacturing cells’ design, and which provides an opportunity to evaluate different options and to select the one which is the most cost effective.