Bottleneck-based group scheduling in a flow line cell

Abstract

Load imbalance and bottleneck phenomenon frequently occur in a cellular manufacturing (CM) environment due to the similarity of process requirements. To alleviate the load imbalance problem, this study focuses on flow line cells and presents a two-stage exhaustive bottleneck-based group scheduling procedure (BGSP). The proposed procedure attempts to fully utilize the bottleneck machine and minimize the makespan and flow time. Until now, the extent to which bottleneck management influences group scheduling heuristics has seldom been mentioned. Also designed herein are a simulation model and the experimental environment. In addition, experimental factors such as setup-to-run time ratio, number of part families, and bottleneck-to-nonbottleneck load ratio, are examined as well. Moreover, two single-stage and five two-stage group scheduling rules discussed in previous literature are compared. The procedure proposed herein possesses the best average makespan, average flow time, and more robust than available procedures. Results in this study demonstrate the practical nature of bottleneck management on group scheduling in cellular manufacturing systems.