Some effects of flexibility and dependability on cellular manufacturing system performance

The advantages of cellular manufacturing organization can be strongly affected by uncertainty. In particular, the effects of resource dependability on system performance are investigated. The use of routing flexibility in cellular manufacturing systems (CMS) is analyzed to search system configurations that optimize system performance. Adopting the concept of “limited flexibility” proposed in the literature, a simulation model is proposed to point out some trade-off between routing flexibility costs and benefits in a CMS with both constant and variable part family demand. Three specific problems are addressed and quantitative results, in terms of costs and lost sale performance, are provided by case examples.