Performance of manufacturing cells for group technology: a parametric analysis

There have been few research efforts to study the behavior of cellular manufacturing (CM) systems as a function of setup time, processing time, and their ratio. This ratio is found to be a critical parameter in identifying the proper manufacturing environment for the suitability of CM. An analytical model is used in the chapter to compare the relative performance of a partitioned (cellular) system with an unpartitioned (functional) system as a function of the ratio between setup time and processing time per unit, varying over a large domain of values. As per the comparison, the ratio between setup time and processing time per unit in combination with the setup time value impacts the performance measures of flow time and work-in-process for both partitioned system and unpartitioned system. Also identified are the domain values over which both systems are infeasible, as well as the values at which feasibility exists. Conditional characteristics concerning the relative performance of the two strategies are identified. The performance criteria used are flow time and work-in-process.