An operation-sequence-based approach in designing a flow line independent-cell system with machine capacity incorporated

This paper considers a problem of designing a flow line independent-cell system where each machine can treat multiple production operations and at most two machines of each machine type can be installed in the same cell. The objective is to minimize the total system cost including machine cost and material handling cost subject to each cell capacity. The problem is characterized as NP-hard. Therefore, in order to find a good solution efficiently, this paper proposes two greedy-type heuristic algorithms including a single-combining algorithm and a double-combining algorithm. Both the algorithms are derived by using the process of combining the cells and are tested for their efficiencies with various numerical problems.