Impact of sequence of operations and layout of cells in cellular manufacturing

A new model that includes two important factors which were not considered previously by the author has been developed and presented for determining optimal/near-optimal machine-part clusters in cellular manufacturing. First, the model takes into consideration the sequence of operations in evaluating the intercell and intracell moves; and second, it includes the impact of the layout of cells in evaluating the intercell moves. The total move is computed as a weighted sum of both intercell and intracell moves, and is used as a suitable measure to evaluate the performance of the model. Another measure incorporated in the model is the utilization of a workstation and a targeted minimum value of 50% utilization was used for each machine in a workstation. An efficient solution algorithm for this model was developed and implemented on a microcomputer. Its effectiveness was tested on different test problems that have appeared in the literature. Although the results presented cannot be compared directly with those of the previous models, due to the incorporation of the two important factors, they represent a more thorough and accurate analysis of a cellular manufacturing problem.