Machine capacity planning in Group Technology

The paper develops a procedure in Group Technology environment to determine the number of machines, their groupings and the amount of material transfer between the groups, so that all components can be processed within the plant with minimum total cost. The procedure involves further analysing and modifying the solution of an existing GT cell formation method. The factors used in the analysis are machine capacity requirements and between group material handling transfer cost, for each component, as well as the machine cost for each machine. Sequential or non-sequential processing of the components plays an important role in the final grouping and cost.