How to carry out assembly line–cell conversion? A discussion based on factor analysis of system performance improvements

IEEE Trans. Automat. Sci. Eng.

et al. 2014

Self Cite

Cell formation and parts scheduling are two important correlated processes in a cellular manufacturing system; however, the decisions involved in these processes are typically made individually. Determining how to integrate these decisions effectively to pursue a productive and lower cost system has become an important issue. This paper focuses on providing an effective solution to integrate the decisions of cell formation and parts scheduling, while considering intercell moves by using a Lagrangian relaxation decomposition method. A mixed integer nonlinear programming mathematical model (CFPSP) is proposed to determine which part families and machine groups are assigned to cells and in which sequence the parts are processed in the machines to minimize the total tardiness penalty cost. To effectively solve the model, a Lagrangian relaxation decomposition method with a heuristic (LRDH) is developed. Using the LRDH, the CFPSP model is solved by decomposing the model into two subproblems, i.e., the cell formation subproblem (CFPSP-FD) and the parts scheduling subproblem (CFPSP-SD). After linearizing the CFPSP-FD model, the subproblem CFPSP-FD is solved by the MIP optimizer CPLEX. A scatter search approach is developed to solve the subproblem CFPSP-SD. Combined with the Lagrange multipliers, the CFPSP-SD model takes into consideration the assignment of part families and the associated machine groups to each cell, when it sequences the processing of the parts on each machine in cells. An illustration of the application of the CFPSP model in an electronic appliance cellular manufacturing enterprise in China is presented.Note to Practitioners-Cell formation and parts scheduling are two important correlated processes in a cellular manufacturing system; however, the decisions involved in these processes are typically made individually. Determining how to integrate these decisions has become an important issue. This paper proposes an effective solution to integrate the decisions of cell formation and parts scheduling, while considering intercell moves. To effectively solve the model, a Lagrangian relaxation decomposition method with heuristic (LRDH) is developed, which provides a lower bound of the optimal solution. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the LRDH is an effective approach that Manuscript can be easily implemented. This approach facilitates production managers to implement an integrated decision with a near optimal solution, and it has been demonstrated to be effective in an electronic appliance cellular manufacturing enterprise in China.

“…Thus, the objective of CFPSP-FD in (20) represents the total intercell transportation cost of the exceptional operations.…”

Section: B Linearizing the Model Of The Subproblem Cfpsp-fdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Algorithm 3: Overall Procedures Of the Lrdhmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Using Lagrangian Relaxation Decomposition With Heuristic to Integrate the Decisions of Cell Formation and Parts Scheduling Considering Intercell Moves

Tang

Yan

IEEE Trans. Automat. Sci. Eng.

et al. 2014

Self Cite

“…Actually, multiobjective decisionmaking is often used in the line-seru conversion problem. Although Yu et al [5] also discussed how to implement this type of line-seru conversion, they constructed a twoobjective line-seru conversion model that minimizes the total throughput time (TTPT) and the total labor hours (TLH). Yu et al [6] also proposed a multiobjective optimization model to investigate the following two performances of line-seru conversion: the total throughput time and the total labor hours.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the Effect of the Line‐Seru Conversion on the Waiting Time with Batch Arrival

Ren

Mathematical Problems in Engineering

2019

The conveyor assembly line has been widely used in manufacturing industries to produce standard products with low costs. However, due to lack of flexibility, this production method has not been conducive to multivariety and small-batch production. In this situation, seru production formed by converting conveyor assembly lines has been a successful innovation in the Japanese manufacturing industry. Most of the existing literature has studied the benefits of this line-seru conversion from the perspective of the enterprises themselves, but this paper studies the effect of the line-seru conversion on the waiting time from the perspective of the customer. First, the change in the average waiting queue length caused by the line-seru conversion is proposed as an evaluation index. Second, with the consideration of the practical situation of random batch arrivals, the average waiting queue length formulas for the conveyor assembly line and seru production are established based on the assumption that the arrival is a Poisson process. Then, under two scenarios, we investigate the relationship between the average waiting queue length changed by the line-seru conversion and other parameters and find that the conversion can reduce the average waiting queue length in multivariety and small-batch production. Finally, under other potential scenarios, the equations for determining the average waiting queue length resulting from a change to line-seru conversion are derived.

“…The results obtained for pure seru system models not only provide insights into the pure seru system environment, they also provide a basis for heuristics that are applicable to more complicated assembly seru system environments. Therefore, many literatures focused on converting the assembly line to a pure seru system, such as Yu et al ( 2012 , 2013 , 2014 ). Also, the research considers the assembly line is converted to a pure seru system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complexity of line-seru conversion for different scheduling rules and two improved exact algorithms for the multi-objective optimization

Tang

et al. 2016

SpringerPlus

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Productivity can be greatly improved by converting the traditional assembly line to a seru system, especially in the business environment with short product life cycles, uncertain product types and fluctuating production volumes. Line-seru conversion includes two decision processes, i.e., seru formation and seru load. For simplicity, however, previous studies focus on the seru formation with a given scheduling rule in seru load. We select ten scheduling rules usually used in seru load to investigate the influence of different scheduling rules on the performance of line-seru conversion. Moreover, we clarify the complexities of line-seru conversion for ten different scheduling rules from the theoretical perspective. In addition, multi-objective decisions are often used in line-seru conversion. To obtain Pareto-optimal solutions of multi-objective line-seru conversion, we develop two improved exact algorithms based on reducing time complexity and space complexity respectively. Compared with the enumeration based on non-dominated sorting to solve multi-objective problem, the two improved exact algorithms saves computation time greatly. Several numerical simulation experiments are performed to show the performance improvement brought by the two proposed exact algorithms.