(A) heuristic for the part-mix allocation problem in a mixed production system with a flexible manufactureing cell(FMC) and a conventional job shop

Abstract

This thesis considers the part-mix allocation problem in a mixed production system composed of a Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) and a job-shop-type conventional cell with the objective of minimizing the makespan. This allocation problem occurs in a number of small-to-medium sized cellular manufacturing systems, where an FMC is introduced as a means of partial automation or capacity expansion. In this Thesis, the mixed system can be regarded as a two-processor parallel system. For the part-mix allocation problem arising from the mixed manufacturing system, we develop a heuristic algorithm to minimize the makespan for a given set of part types and corresponding lot sizes specified by a master production schedule (MPS). To obtain the makespan of the mixed system, we use the priority dispatching procedure in the job-shop-type conventional cell and a part grouping procedure in the FMC, where the part group is a set of part types for simultaneous processing. The proposed heuristic is a combination of the two procedures and considers the division of a batch by the lots in the conventional cell. Computational results show that a better makespan can be obtained by dividing a given batch into several smaller lots when scheduling the production.