A two-stage mathematical approach for the design of Virtual Manufacturing Cells Online publication date: Wed, 01-Apr-2009
by Y.F. Peng, Z.L. Guan, L. Ma, C.Y. Zhang, P.G. Li
International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems (IJMMS), Vol. 2, No. 1/2, 2009
Abstract: Virtual cellular manufacturing systems are believed to have paved a new avenue to improving the utilisation of machines and providing faster response to short-term fluctuation in demands by promoting machine sharing among logical manufacturing cells. The design of Virtual Manufacturing Cells (VMCs) under the consideration of machine sharing has, therefore, been attracting attentions from more and more researchers and practitioners. A two-stage mathematical approach for the design of VMCs is presented in this paper. A new mathematical model that automatically optimises the number of part families is given to form part families in the first stage. A novel mathematical formulation was proposed in Stage 2 with new variables added, which defines more accurately the number of shared machines in virtual cells. The proposed method has been applied in a plant and the results show its practicability and validity.
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