Study On The Virtual Cell Formation Problem For LCM Production Shop

In global electronic business, LCD has been widely used in various display equipments.The production of LCM is the back production process, which is to combine LCD items,connectors and PCB etc.. The production process of LCM is different from ordinaryconsumption goods. Its production environment has the characters including various kindsand small volume, complex craft, uncertainty, and high set-up cost. Because the presentproduction mode is inefficient under this condition, it’s urgent to develop a kind ofproduction mode suitable to LCM companies.VCMS is a kind of advanced production technology which allows the cell constructionto change with demand to obtain the global optimum. Applying VCMS to LCM companieshave the advantages of lowering reconstructing costs and set-up costs, as well as improvingthe use ratio of machines. So VCMS has a good application prospect in LCM companies.Because of the features of LCM production conditions, some problems have to be solved,such as the cell formation problem, the coordination problem among virtual cells and theassign problem of operators. This paper mainly researched on the virtual cell formationproblem for LCM production companies, and aimed to provide suggestions for decisionmakers. What’s more, LCM is a typical automation production mode, the research of thispaper will also have significance for other automation production enterprises.This paper proposed a0-1nonlinear mixed integer programming model of themulti-period virtual cell formation problem for LCM shop, and then verified the model byLingo11.0package with a numerical example. Considering the necessary of integratingvirtual cell formation and production planning, the paper proposed the virtual cell formationproblem incorporating production planning. A mathematical model aimed to minimize thetardiness cost was proposed, and a case study was used to compare integrately consideringvirtual cell formation and production planning with respectively considering them and provethe validity of the proposed model as well. Finally, to validate the effectiveness of modelraised in this paper, a case involves a SuZhou electronics company was designed. Byapplying the methods to SMT automation shop, the results was compared with the situationbefore improving, and the results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the model thispaper proposed.