Design of cellular manufacturing systems using a holonistic approach

Cellular manufacturing is application of group technology to mcinufacturing. Cellular manufacturing system design problem involves the identification of part families, machine groups and layout of cells, and the selection of tools, fixtures and material handling equipment. In this study, part family and machine cell formation, and within-cell hiyout problems are solved simultaneously by using a holonistic approach. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model is proposed to form completely independent cells. The model maximizes total profit under cell size, within-cell layout, machine capacity, low utilization and low profit level constraints. Since it is difficult to obtain a feasible solution to the proposed model in a reasonable computation time, a local search heuristic based algorithm is proposed. The first two stages of the algorithm are used to find a feasible solution to the MIP model and the third stage provides an alternative solution with intercell movements. The proposed algorithm finds feasible solutions to the problem in recisonable computation times.