Introducing new parts into existing cellular manufacturing systems based on a novel similarity coefficient
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abstract
Over the last three decades, designing cellular manufacturing systems (CMS) still centres on assigning machines to machine cells and parts to part families. This task ends after assigning these part families to the appropriate machine cells. In the past, testing CMS was evaluated according to the efficiency of clustering, but actual testing of CMS after installation is still unexplored. Introducing one or more new parts (products) into CMS without any changes in the installation of the cells during processing of the current parts is a new concept to be considered and evaluated. Transferring these systems from traditional ideologues to advanced ideologues (agile systems) is highly desired. This concept can be considered as part (product) flexibility in CMS. To address this concept, a new similarity coefficient between the new part and the existing manufacturing cell will be created. New productivity and flexibility measurements in CMS will also be suggested. A new strategy for accepting a new part into CMS will be proposed based on machine utilization and flexibility in the cells, cell utilization and flexibility in the system, product flexibility (system flexibility), and similarity of this part with existing manufacturing cells. A complete analytical example will be presented. 2005 Taylor & Francis Ltd.
