Design of cellular manufacturing system with worker assignment

Cellular manufacturing is one of the most effective approaches in manufacturing area, when the system contains similar products by shapes, functions or production methods. Cell Formation Problem is the main problem in cellular manufacturing systems.In this thesis, a specific cell formation problem, which consists of alternative routes of parts, different process times at different machines for each part, manufacturing cost, different inter-cell material handling cost for different parts, different machine complexity degree, different talent worker degree, different worker talent degree, multifunctional workers and worker training cost. To solve the problem, an algorithm based on Simulated Annealing algorithm is presented. The number of the cells is determined in the presented algorithm using Kaiser?s Rule by Bashir and Karaa (2008). To test the proposed algorithm, three cell formation problems are randomly generated, the small sized consists of five machines and seven parts; the medium sized consists of ten machines and fifteen parts; and the large sized consists of eighteen machines and thirty parts. The results show that the proposed algorithm produces good results giving the minimum total cost which includes manufacturing cost, inter-cell material handling cost, and worker training cost. Also effects of the inter-cell material handling cost and the worker training cost on the total cost are analyzed by changing each cost.Keywords: Cell formation, cellular manufacturing, heuristics, human issue, worker training, worker assignment, simulated annealing.