Determination of a Flexibility Range for Cellular Manufacturing Systems under Product Mix Variations

Hamid Seifoddini, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Manocher Djassemi, University of Wisconsin - Platteville

Article comments

Copyright © 1997 Taylor & Francis. The definitive version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/002075497194110.

NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Manocher Djassemi was not yet affiliated with Cal Poly.

Abstract

One of the underlying assumptions in cellular manufacturing is that product mix is relatively stable over time. In this paper, a procedure for the sensitivity analysis of the performance of a cellular manufacturing system with respect to changes in the product mix is presented and a flexibility range representing the capability of the system in dealing with these changes is determined using simulation modelling. The simulation results in this study show that as the changes in the product mix increase the superiority of the performance of the cellular manufacturing system to the corresponding job shop system diminishes.