Group technology and material flows: layout design via optimisation and simulation

In the layout design phase of a cellular manufacturing system, the objective is to group parts into families having similar characteristics and to identify dedicated sets of machines (cells) to process the different families while minimizing intercell material flows. In the proposed iterative approach (i) a cell formation problem is solved through machine-pair similarity coefficients (optimisation phase), (ii) for the cell configuration obtained, a simulation is performed and performance indicators levels are measured (simulation phase) and (iii) similarity coefficients are re-defined through suitable feedback indicators (feedback phase).