Workload balance of cells in designing of multiple cellular manufacturing systems

Abstract

PurposeThis paper presents a new method of resource optimization through workload balance in designing of multiple cellular manufacturing (MCM) systems for flow‐shop environments. The application of a step‐by‐step structured approach to design MCM cells more efficiently and generate smooth flow shop type with better resource utilization.Design/methodology/approachAn industrial application case with 31 products carried on 12 workstations is presented to explore the step‐by‐step of designing and analyzing the results of alternative cellular manufacturing and balancing the workload.FindingsMCM designs have become an important approach for batch production in the last decade, and their layout provides a dominant flow structure for the production scheduling. The flow shop nature of MCM adds a simplifying structure to the complexity of planning and scheduling. This method will generate many alternative designs and configurations of MCM in the form of highly flexible manufacturing systems. These alternatives could be better a choice for resource optimization in the industrial application.Originality/valueTogether with the associated costs, each proposed solution for the MCM could help to design and build efficient and highly flexible systems. Special emphasis will be devoted to the workload balance of workstations, machines, material‐handling equipment and WIP with the utilization of the resources in the production system. This method is practical, experiential and participates. A program using C language will be written to test the proposed algorithm for randomly generated input data.