A SIMULATOR-BASED APPROACH TO CELLULAR MANUFACTURING SYSTEM-DESIGN

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a product-oriented organizational strat egy that is recognized as one of the critical elements in the rejuvena tion of outdated and unproductive manufacturing plants.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.