CELLULAR MANUFACTURING LAYOUT DESIGN USING HEURISTIC CLUSTERING ALGORITHM AND LPP MODEL

Abstract

This mathematical model forms machine cells, optimises the costs of unassigned machines and components, and designs the shop floor cell layout to have minimal movement of materials. The complete similarity measure algorithm forms machine cells and part families in a refined form. Later, exceptional elements are eliminated in the optimisation model by using machine duplication and sub-contracting of parts. Then the shop floor layout is designed to have optimised material movements between and within cells. An evaluation of the cell formation algorithm’ performance is done on the benchmark problems of various batch sizes to reveal the process’s capability compared with other similar methods. The data of machining times are acquired and tabulated in a part incidence matrix, which is used as input for the algorithm. The results from the linear programming optimisation model are that costs are saved, machines are duplicated, parts are sub-contracted, and there are inter- and intra- cellular movements. Finally, the output of the inbound facility design is the floor layout, which has machine cell clusters within the optimised floor area.