Design of a Cellular Manufacturing System for a Product Oriented Plant

Traditional approach to gearing up a cellular manufacturing system (CMS) is to consider only two dimensions, viz, “machine – component”. However, when the problem is addressed in a context of “product – part – machine” dimension, it provides a different perspective to the problem. The current study is an effort in this direction. A formulation of the CMS problem to a product oriented plant as well as a solution procedure has been proposed. A measure for product ownership has been proposed. Practitioners often face the difficult choice of what machines to dedicate to the cells and what to keep centralised. The study has provided a quantitative basis for resolving this conflict. The results show that while a high product ownership can guarantee a high component ownership, the reverse does not. The results underscore the need for including the “product” dimension to the CMS design problem. Third International Conference on Operations & Quantitative Management (ICOQM – III) Sydney, December 17 – 20, 2000 1 Associate Professor, Production & Operations Management, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 076. INDIA. email:[email protected] 2 Lecturer, Industrial Engineering Division, College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai – 600 025, INDIA, email:[email protected] 3 Associate Professor, Production & Operations Management, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 076. INDIA. email:[email protected]