Inter‐cell movement minimisation in a cellular manufacturing system having stochastic parameters

In this paper, a mathematical model is developed to formulate a cellular manufacturing system with uncertain parameters. In this model, the processing time is a random variable following normal probability distribution, demand is a random variable following normal probability distribution and the inter‐arrival time for part is a random variable following exponential probability distribution. The objective of the proposed mathematical model is to configure machines' layout in cells so that the inter‐cell movements are minimised and the bottlenecks are breakthrough. The applicability of the proposed mathematical programme is illustrated using numerical examples. Two numerical examples are shown in small and large sizes to emphasise the capability of the mathematical model for handling different problem sizes.