Abstract
Transition from a functional system to a cellular system involves partitioning the machine and part populations. Partitioning the machine population degrades the queue time performance. This paper investigates whether splitting the part population into part families can offset the effect of partitioning the machine population on queue time. Queue times are obtained for both cellular and functional systems through queueing theory for single stage production and by simulation for multistage production under identical factor settings of process time, setup time, batch size and part arrival. Unlike past research, this study identifies certain situations where a cellular system without getting benefits in factor settings outperforms a functional system.
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Pitchuka, L.N., Adil, G.K. & Ananthakumar, U. Effect of conversion of functional layout to a cellular layout on the queue time performance: some new insights. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 31, 594–601 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-005-0219-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-005-0219-2