2409. Towards a Machine Grouping Logic for Cell Formation aligned with Plant Layout Efficiency, Operational Costs Anticipation, and Market Customization Requirements
Invited abstract in session TA-10: Fulfillment Operations I, stream Supply Chain Management and Production.
Thursday, 8:45-10:15Room: H16
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Soukaina Triki
|
| Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik und Operations Research, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, | |
| 2. | Taieb Mellouli
|
| Business Information Systems and Operations Research, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg |
Abstract
Modern markets increasingly demand high product variety with short lead times, pushing producers to design effective manufacturing systems aligned with mass customization. This challenges classical layouts: flow shops offer high efficiency for mass production, while process layouts provide flexibility for customized jobs but at higher logistical costs. As a compromise, cellular manufacturing based on Group Technology (GT) proposes grouping machines and parts to emulate the efficiency of flow shops and the flexibility of job shops.
However, our critical analysis of the classical Cell Formation (CF) Model supporting GT reveals structural limitations. By examining benchmark instances, we show that CF evaluation metrics based on Exceptional Elements (EE), voids, and grouping efficacy, though useful for assessing clustering, fail to accurately anticipate operational in-plant logistical costs directly affected by key layout factors such as cell size, spatial separation, and inter-cell movement complexity. These limitations are caused by a disconnect of grouping decisions to the requirements of an effective Inter-Cell plant layout for variant-rich production.
Our argumentative and experimental analysis of CFP limitation types shows that voids fail to accurately capture intra-cell movement costs, which depend on cell size. More critically, classical CFP minimizes only the total number of EEs, without differentiating the distribution of their associated out-of-cell operations among cell-to-cell (c2c) connections. The fewer these necessary c2c connections, the closer a placement of related cells is possible in the layout. The integration of this aspect in modeling (also part-wise) is a main step towards a better anticipation of operational costs in the machine grouping phase.
Keywords
- Flexible Manufacturing Systems
- Facilities Planning and Design
- Strategic Planning and Management
Status: accepted
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