A practical method for design of hybrid-type production facilities

A comprehensive method for the design of hybrid-type production shops, which comprise both manufacturing cells and individual workcentres, is presented. The method targets the minimization of the material handling effort within the shop and includes four basic steps: (1) identification of candidate manufacturing cells, (2) evaluation and selection of the cells to be implemented, (3) determination of the intra-cell layout, and (4) determination of the shop layout. For the cell formation step the 1CTMM technique has been enhanced to cater for important practical issues. The layout of each significant cell is determined by a simulated annealing (SA)-based algorithm. Once the sizes and shapes of the selected cells are known the shop layout is determined by a similar algorithm. The resulting hybrid shop consists of the selected cells and the remaining machines. The methodology has been implemented in an integrated software system and has been applied to redesign the shop of a large manufacturer of radar antennas.

[1]  Andrew Kusiak,et al.  The facility layout problem , 1987 .

[2]  Rakesh Nagi,et al.  Multiple routeings and capacity considerations in group technology applications , 1990 .

[3]  Thomas C. Lu.  Integrated Approach for Hybrid Shop Layout , 1993 .

[4]  John McAuley,et al.  Machine grouping for efficient production , 1972 .

[5]  Jean-Marie Proth,et al.  Group technology in production management: The short horizon planning level , 1985 .

[6]  M. Chandrasekharan,et al.  ZODIAC—an algorithm for concurrent formation of part-families and machine-cells , 1987 .

[7]  Jerry C. Wei,et al.  Commonality analysis: A linear cell clustering algorithm for group technology , 1989 .

[8]  D. A. Milner,et al.  Direct clustering algorithm for group formation in cellular manufacture , 1982 .

[9]  Teofilo F. Gonzalez,et al.  P-Complete Approximation Problems , 1976, J. ACM.

[10]  Ronald G. Asktn,et al.  A cost-based heuristic for group technology configuration† , 1987 .

[11]  Andrew Kusiak,et al.  Decomposition of manufacturing systems , 1988, IEEE J. Robotics Autom..

[12]  Andrew Kusiak,et al.  Knowledge-based system for group technology (KBGT) , 1988, [Proceedings] 1988 International Conference on Computer Integrated Manufacturing.

[13]  George Harhalakis,et al.  CLASS: Computerized LAyout Solutions using Simulated annealing , 1992 .

[14]  Ronald G. Askin,et al.  A Hamiltonian path approach to reordering the part-machine matrix for cellular manufacturing , 1991 .

[15]  Wen-Chyuan Chiang,et al.  Simulated annealing for machine layout problems in the presence of zoning constraints , 1992 .

[16]  A. Kusiak,et al.  Efficient solving of the group technology problem , 1987 .

[17]  S. Irani,et al.  Cluster first-sequence last heuristics for generating block diagonal forms for a machine-part matrix , 1993 .

[18]  C. L. Ang,et al.  A comparative study of the performance of pure and hybrid group technology manufacturing systems using computer simulation techniques , 1984 .

[19]  J. King.  Machine-component grouping in production flow analysis: an approach using a rank order clustering algorithm , 1980 .

[20]  Nancy Lea Hyer,et al.  Procedures for the part family/machine group identification problem in cellular manufacturing , 1986 .

[21]  Suresh K. Khator,et al.  Cell formation in group technology: a new approach , 1987 .

[22]  Paul J. Schweitzer,et al.  Problem Decomposition and Data Reorganization by a Clustering Technique , 1972, Oper. Res..

[23]  A. Alfa,et al.  Experimental analysis of simulated annealing based algorithms for the layout problem , 1992 .

[24]  Rakesh Nagi,et al.  An efficient heuristic in manufacturing cell formation for group technology applications , 1990 .

[25]  Ronald L. Rivest,et al.  Introduction to Algorithms , 1990 .

[26]  George Harhalakis,et al.  Manufacturing Cell Formation with Multiple, Functionally Identical Machines , 1990 .