In The Design Of A Cellular Manufacturing System

Traditional approach to designing a cellular manufacturing system (CMS) is to consider only two dimensions, viz., “machine – component”. However, when the problem is addressed in the context of “product – part – machine ” dimension, it provides a different perspective to the problem. The current study is an effort in this direction. A formulation of the CMS problem to design product-focused cells as well as a solution procedure has been proposed. The study also proposes a “product focus index ” to judge the adequacy of cell design. Practitioners often face the difficult choice of what machines to dedicate to cells and what to keep centralized. The study has provided a quantitative basis for resolving this conflict. The results show that traditional performance measures and solution procedures are inadequate to obtain high degree of product focus. The results underscore the need for including the “product ” dimension in CMS design problem