ABSTRACT
The design steps of cellular manufacturing systems (CMS) are usually performed sequentially without considering interactions between stages. There needs to be a certain feedback among different parts of CMS design so that the system can be designed simultaneously for a better functionality. In this paper, an intuitive approach to eliminate congestions in CMS was developed. Part routings were determined by a machine resource minimizing model, machines were grouped to form cells, and a simulation analysis was performed to determine the effects of fixed part routings on cell formation and the material handling system. A procedure to eliminate congestions in the material handling system by intelligently altering part routings was proposed. A sample problem was solved. Numerical results indicate that the proposed procedure is effective.
