A heuristic algorithm for machine assignment in cellular layout

This paper presents a heuristic algorithm that addresses problems of machine allocation in cellular manufacturing (CM). The focus is on the intra-cell machines allocation, because the inter-cell material flows should be minimal in CM. The algorithm tackles one cell at a time with a maximum of 9 machines, which will be assigned into a 3 × 3 grid space according to the ranking result. The proposed algorithm uses an adoptive approach to relate machines in a cell by examining the merged part flow weights of machine pairs. The establishment of the part flow weight includes practical constrains, such as the part-handling factor and the number of parts per transportation. Then, an objective function is employed to determine the total travelling score in which the travelling distance is covered. The procedures of the proposed heuristic algorithm will be presented in this paper and data used in Yaman's cases are used to illustrate the operation. In comparison to other approaches, the proposed algorithm provided near-optimum layouts.