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Machine cell formation for cellular manufacturing systems using an ant colony system approach

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Abstract

The aim of a cellular manufacturing system is to group parts that have similar processing needs into part families and machines that meet these needs into machine cells. This paper addresses the problem of grouping machines with the objective of minimizing the total cell load variation and the total intercellular moves. The parameters considered include demands for number of parts, routing sequences, processing time, machine capacities, and machine workload status. For grouping the machines, an ant colony system (ACS) approach is proposed. The computational procedure of the approach is explained with a numerical illustration. Large problems with up to 40 machines and 100 part types are tested and analyzed. The results of ACS are compared with the results obtained from a genetic algorithm (GA), and it is observed that its performance is better than that of GA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Production Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, 620 015, Tamil Nadu, India

    G. Prabhaharan, P. Asokan & B.S. Girish

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSNA College of Engineering & Technology, Dindigul, 620 015, Tamil Nadu, India

    A. Muruganandam

Authors
  1. G. Prabhaharan
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  2. P. Asokan
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  3. B.S. Girish
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  4. A. Muruganandam
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Correspondence to G. Prabhaharan.

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Prabhaharan, G., Asokan, P., Girish, B. et al. Machine cell formation for cellular manufacturing systems using an ant colony system approach. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 25, 1013–1019 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-003-1927-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-003-1927-0

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