A multi objective mathematical programming approach for human-machine cell formation problem in cellular manufacturing systems

Four basic components of manufacturing systems are human, equipment, operating rules and material. The efficient design of cellular manufacturing systems necesitate the consideration of these components altogether.Cell formation problem is the first and one of the most important problems in cellular manufacturing system design. In this study; a mathematical model which forms part-machine and human cells simultaneously is proposed to solve cell formation problem by taking into account four basic components of manufacturing. The model is a multi-objective mixed integer mathematical model which considers alternative routings, part demands and allows subcontracting, lot splitting. The objectives in the model are minimizing the operation time, the number of purchased machines and their set up time, subcontracting cost, the number of intercellular movements of parts and the number of employed machine operators. All the terms are unified as cost minimization.The proposed model is analysed with a sample problem of which data set adapted from the literature. The model performance is investigated according to run time, the number of nodes and iterations measures by using different size problems. It has been observed that the proposed mathematical model is a candidate for efficent and usable tool in small and medium sized problems.