Sequential optimisation of reconfigurable machine cell feeders and production sequence during lean assembly

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a manufacturing model for integrating reconfigurable machine cells as feeders of components to a multi-product assembly line exhibiting a prominent lean characteristic; synchronisation with Takt time. Two mathematical formulations in the form of combinatorial optimisation problems are developed to identify the best reconfiguration for the machines by optimum selection of the modules in the cells to minimise the total error with Takt time and then the optimum sequence of assembling the products to minimise the total reconfiguration time and effort. An elitist genetic algorithm (GA) meta-heuristic is employed twice in succession to search the optimal solutions for both the minimisation problems. The best machine configuration found from the first search is utilised further to identify the optimal assembly sequence. A hypothetical data set representing the features and parameters of the model in conformance with any typical mixed-model assembly is presented for illustration of computational procedure. Synchronisation among machine cells and tardiness are considered as performance evaluation measures to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model.

KEYWORDS:

• Cellular manufacturing
• lean manufacturing
• Takt time
• reconfigurable machines
• machine modules
• elitist genetic algorithm

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the two anonymous referees for their valued review and suggestions to improve the content and presentation of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.