Design of cellular manufacturing systems with refixturing considerations.

The objective of this research is to deal with some specific production planning and design problems during cell formation. Important manufacturing realities such as refixturing and material handling during operation allocation and cell formation were considered. Model 1 and model 2 consider the problem of assigning operation(s) of part types to one or more machines in a cellular manufacturing environment. Model 1 is developed for the case of a single cell and model 2 extends the operation allocation problem for multiple cells. Model 3 and model 4 are developed to determine machine groups and assignment of part operations to machines. Model 3 is used to simultaneously assign operations of parts to machines and form machine groups. Model 4 is developed for the situation where new machines are procured for the cellular manufacturing environment. Considerations of physical limitations such as an upper bound on cell size, machine capacity, etc., were also incorporated into cell formation and presented. These models bring forth the trade-offs between refixturing, inter cell movement and investment costs. A few illustrative examples were solved using the package LINDO (PC version) and the results were analyzed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1991 .D356. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 30-04, page: 1450. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1990