Models are tested using data from the furniture and other manufacturing industries. We are currently in the third year of this project investigating the design and operation of cellular manufacturing systems. In the following section we provide an overview of research accomplishments during the past year and current activities. A list of recent publications resulting from the project activities is available from the authors. Industrial interviews and surveys have been used to define important real-world concerns.
Load balancing becomes a problem in cellular layouts under dynamic demand patterns.
We have developed comprehensive measures for assessing the flexibility of a cellular system. These measures are then used to drive a cell design algorithm that emphasizes flexibility and permits consideration of future part mixes. This project resulted in a Ph.D. dissertation and several papers have been submitted for publication. A related project studied the tradeoff between physical and virtual cells. Virtual cells avoid the need for frequent relayout in dynamic environments, but sacrifice some of the teaming and material handling advantages of physical cells.