Research Initiation: Economies of Production through Duplicating Bottleneck Machines and Subcontracting Bottleneck Parts in Cellular Manufacturing

理想情况下，在单元制造系统中，一组零件将在由一种或多种机器类型组成的机器单元内进行整体加工。在大多数实际问题中，普遍存在一种非理想情况，即单个零件和机器组通常是连接在一起的。部件可能需要在单元中处理，而不是在它自己的单元中（称为瓶颈部件）。类似地，一台机器可以处理分配给它自己以外的单元的部件（称为瓶颈机器）。据报道，研究调查可以通过复制瓶颈机器或分包瓶颈部件来实现生产经济。本研究采用整合的方法，建立了一个元胞制造系统的线性二元规划模型，该模型同时利用机器复制和零件分包来最大限度地节省净成本。由于线性模型表示已被证明是np困难的，因此将开发一种启发式求解算法。建立了合适的性能度量来确定解的准确性和算法的有效性。考虑到零件制造公司的预算限制，该模型的求解算法以及随后计算机程序主机的开发将确定需要复制的瓶颈机器和需要分包的瓶颈部件。

Ideally in cellular manufacturing systems, a family of parts will be processed in its entirety within a machine cell that consists of one or more machine types. In most practical problems a non-ideal situation prevails, in that the individual part and machine groupings are usually connected. A part might require processing in a cell other than its own (called a bottleneck part). Similarly, a machine can process a part assigned to a cell other than its own (called a bottleneck machine). Research investigations have been reported to attain economies of production, either by duplicating bottleneck machines or by subcontracting bottleneck parts. The research takes an integrated approach to develop a linear binary programming model for a cellular manufacturing system which simultaneously utilizes machine duplication and part subcontracting to maximize net savings in costs. As the linear model representation has been proven to be NP-hard, a heuristic solution algorithm will be developed. Suitable measures of performance have been established to determine the accuracy of the solution and the effectiveness of the algorithm. Given the budgetary restriction a parts manufacturing company has to work with, the solution algorithm for the model, and the subsequent development of hosts of computer programs, will determine the bottleneck machines that need to be duplicated and the bottleneck parts that need to be subcontracted.