Recently, a large number of studies have addressed lot splitting as a means
to reduce flow times as well as improve due date performance. Furthermore,
a number of studies have examined scheduling policies in cellular manufact
uring systems. These studies have been conducted under a variety of experim
ental factors, shop structures and operational assumptions. This study exam
ines scheduling cellular manufacturing systems in the presence of lot split
ting. In addition, we utilize various scheduling policies to test formally
the underlying principles of the synchronous manufacturing philosophy. This
is accomplished by utilizing exhaustive and non-exhaustive scheduling heur
istics simultaneously at bottleneck and non-bottleneck workcentres. The res
ults indicate that, under certain conditions, performing additional set-ups
before the bottleneck can improve due date performance without an adverse
effect on average flow time. Furthermore, we show that incurring additional
set-ups after the bottleneck does not improve due date performance and may
deteriorate flow time performance. These results conflict with some of the
tenets of the synchronous manufacturing philosophy.