Performance comparison of the virtual cell layout with cellular and job shop configurations using simulation and design of experiments

The appropriate choice of the physical layout of the shop floor is fundamental for the viability of an industrial activity in the current globalized and highly competitive economy. More and more specialized products, with successively shorter life cycles seek to respond to the frequent market changes, demanding an agile and flexible industrial system that at the same time is economically efficient. A large portion of the industrial companies manufacture their products in batch-based manufacturing systems using either the job shop or the traditional cell layouts. However, in those arrangements there is always a compromise solution between efficiency and flexibility. Seeking to provide a solution to this difficulty, the concept of virtual cell manufacturing appears, which encompasses the high routing flexibility of job shop production with the efficiency in terms of setup of the traditional cell configuration. However, the virtual cell layout can also present the disadvantages of both layouts, such as longer transport times and the need for additional resource capacity. Given this scenario, this paper seeks to investigate, through simulation and design of experiments, the performance of the virtual cell layout in comparison with job shop and cellular layouts, identifying the conditions in which the application of the former layout is advantageous compared with the others. These layouts are studied through the aid of models with identical capacities and subject to the same demand, and their production sequences are generated by priority criteria. A significant number of factors, levels and replications are used in order to delimit appropriately the scope in which virtual cells effectively lead to competitive advantages.