Operation-sequence-based approach for designing a U-shaped independent-cell system with machine requirement incorporated

This paper considers a cost model for a U-shaped manufacturing cell formation which incorporates a required number of machines and various material flows together under multi-part multi-cell environment. The model is required to satisfy both the specified operation sequence of each part and the total part demand volume, which are considered to derive material handling cost in U-shaped flow-line cells. In the model several cost-incurring factors including set-up for batch change-over, processing time for operations of each part and machine failures are also considered in association with processing load and capacity of each cell. Moreover, a heuristic for a good machine layout in each cell is newly proposed based on the material handling cost of each alternative sequence layout. These are all put together to present an efficient heuristic for the U-shaped independent-cell formation problem. Numerical problems are solved to illustrate the algorithm.