An algorithm aiming partial One-Piece Flow in hybrid cellular manufacturing systems to respond erratic demand

Most of manufacturing companies have to cope with erratic part demands and redesign their production systems that can produce the right mix of parts or products, at the right time at these conditions. Therefore, an Axiomatic Design (AD) model was developed to respond erratic demand conditions by designing a hybrid cellular manufacturing system (CMS). At this model, part families and machine groups were formed by a clustering method. Since one-piece flow is a key operating policy that decreases lead time of the manufacturing system compared with batch type material flow, delays on the work flow were tried to be minimized by using a new One-Piece Flow Algorithm, after part family and machine group formation. At this paper, our purpose is to explain the One-Piece Flow Algorithm in detail and show its contribution in decreasing lead time. This algorithm is based on eliminating exceptional operations causing material flow between dedicated manufacturing cells, by reallocating them to alternative machines systematically, based on AD principles. After the implementation of the algorithm, the layouts of manufacturing cells are designed based on the technique developed for multi-product flow lines (Aneke and Carrie, 1986). Moreover, by simulation models it was shown that algorithm integrated with unidirectional flow-line layout improved the hybrid CMS.