| Cellular manufacturing has emerged as one of the major techniques being used for the improvement of manufacturing competitiveness during the past several decades. The adoption of group technology allows small batch production to gain economic advantages similar to those of mass production while retaining the flexibility of the job shop. The primary objectives in implementing a cellular manufacturing system are to reduce setup times, flow times, material handling patterns, inventories and market response times. A company considering implementing Cellular Manufacturing should exercise caution not only before but also after the design and operation in order to have better control of the system.;The experimental study using discrete simulation is presented in this thesis to compare the performance of a cellular manufacturing system under different operating conditions of parameters such as the batch sizes of transferred parts, part sequencing rules, the assignment of workers in the system, the storage capacity, layout of the system, etc. Recommendations are made to the company for best performance of the system based on the results of this research. Finally the maximum capacity of the system is determined. |
