Title: Multi-period cell loading and job sequencing in a cellular manufacturing system

Authors: Gokhan Egilmez; Gürsel A. Süer

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, North Dakota State University, 1410 14th Ave. N. Civil and Industrial Engineering Building, Room 202K Fargo, ND 58102, USA ' Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Russ College of Engineering and Technology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 45701, USA

Abstract: In this paper, a multi-period cell loading problem is addressed, where the objectives are to minimise the number of tardy jobs (n_T) in a multi-period planning horizon and optimise the scheduling of tardy jobs. Three cell loading and job scheduling strategies are proposed and tested with two newly developed mixed integer programming models. Additionally, three types of due dates (tight, medium and loose) and three different demand levels were considered. Finally, two tardy job assignment methods were proposed to observe the impact on n_T. Case problems were solved based on minimising n_T, T_max and total tardiness (TT) objectives and cost sensitivity analysis was performed. Results indicated that, the first strategy, (early start allowance and tardy job assignment after each period) performed better in terms of n_T. For the secondary objectives, tradeoffs were observed among different strategies depending on the type of due date, demand level and tardy job assignment method.

Keywords: cellular manufacturing systems; CMS; tardy jobs; multi-period planning horizon; cell loading; scheduling cost sensitivity; manufacturing cells; job sequencing; due dates; demand levels.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOM.2015.071468

International Journal of Advanced Operations Management, 2015 Vol.7 No.2, pp.98 - 113

Accepted: 06 Jan 2015
Published online: 29 Aug 2015 *

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