Application of a simple method of cell design accounting for product demand and operation sequence

Abstract

Manufacturing facilities may simplify their operations by converting from a process‐based layout to manufacturing cells. Mathematically, many possible configurations of cells exist, so it may prove computationally infeasible to analyse them all. Also, some current methods of cell design do not take account of the pattern of demand of the existing products or the sequence of the operations that are performed on the products. Presents a simple method of designing manufacturing cells, which uses product demand and operations sequence to design feasible cells, while remaining computationally simple. The method uses a standard spreadsheet tool, so is accessible to a wide range of manufacturing facilities. The method is illustrated with an actual application to a press shop manufacturing over 200 products on 20 presses.

Citation

Efstathiou, J. and Golby, P. (2001), "Application of a simple method of cell design accounting for product demand and operation sequence", Integrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 246-257. https://doi.org/10.1108/09576060110392542