Cellular Manufacturing (CM) is a product-oriented organizational strat
egy that is recognized as one of the critical elements in the rejuvena
tion of outdated and unproductive manufacturing plants. Successful pla
nning, design, and implementation of Cellular Manufacturing Systems (C
MS) require the development of sound, replicable system design approac
hes. In this paper, a simulator-based approach for the design of manuf
acturing cells and systems is described. The approach utilizes holisti
c systems design concepts and addresses Hitomi's three fundamental asp
ects of manufacturing systems: transformational, procedural, and struc
tural. A distinction is made between system logic and system structure
and the concepts of logical design and physical design are utilized T
he approach described can assist the designer by providing a systemati
c holistic methodology to the CMS design process.