Title: Manufacturing cell formation using graph decomposition

Authors: A. Manimaran, G. Prabhakaran, P. Venkumar, R. Sudhakara Pandian

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, NPR College of Engineering and Technology, Natham, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Technology, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: The design of cell formation includes the formation of machine cells and part family assignment to each cell. The cell formation is considered as a most critical step in a cellular manufacturing system. This paper proposes a technique for the formation of machine cells and part families with the objective of minimising the exceptional elements using graph decomposition of a bipartite graph into near complete bipartite graph. In the proposed algorithm known as graph decomposition algorithm, the machines and parts are considered as vertices and the links between machines and parts are edges. This approach is found to offer reliable and better solutions when compared to earlier approaches available in the literature.

Keywords: cellular manufacturing; exceptional elements; bipartite graphs; graph decomposition; cell formation; machine cells; part family assignment; part families; vertices; edges; manufacturing cells; operations management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2010.035054

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2010 Vol.7 No.3, pp.300 - 316

Published online: 02 Sep 2010 *

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