Fuzzy Logic Applications in Cellular Manufacturing System Design

Cellular manufacturing system (CMS) is based on the Group Technology philosophy, where similar products having operational similarities are manufactured within the same production unit called a “cell”, to decrease the setup times, manufacturing lead times and work-in process. Fuzzy Set Theory was employed to consider the uncertainty in real life during the CMS design. The approaches used for this purpose include hard computing methods and soft computing methods. The former do not consider the uncertainty, and the parameters are deterministic. However, the latter (Fuzzy Set Theory) intends to reflect vagueness through the parameters, and it is associated with the soft computing methods. An effective CMS design requires concurrent consideration of real aspects of the system, which are usually uncertain and hard to measure. For instance, parts demands, cost of inter-cell flow, machine purchasing costs etc. are imprecise which stipulates use of soft computing techniques. The purpose of this study is basically to summarize the fuzzy techniques, especially the fuzzy clustering and fuzzy programming employed for the CMS design, and their past applications, and offer directions for future research.