Patent ID: 8259331

Claim:
A system for designing cells in a job shop, the system comprising: a computing device; and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device, wherein the computer-readable storage medium comprises one or more programming instructions for execution with the computing device, the programming instructions comprising one or more programming instructions for: identifying a plurality of jobs associated with the job shop, wherein each job comprises one or more functions, generating a representation for each unique job, creating one or more workflows by: for each unique function in the job shop: determining a number of representations that require the function, determining a device count representative of a number of production devices in the job shop that perform the function, and determining a value equal to the difference between the number of representations that require the function and the device count; and for each function whose associated value exceeds a reference value, combining a plurality of the representations such that the value of the function does not exceed the reference value, assigning the one or more workflows to one of a plurality of cells, wherein each cell comprises one or more devices, determining whether one or more of the cells is complex, and splitting at least one workflow within a complex cell.