Modeling of hybrid assembly cell formation problem

In this paper, an assembly cell formation problem is addressed, which has been reported as a new technical innovation in the industry. First, a mathematical model is proposed to describe the assembly cell formation problem. Some decisions are made about the assembly cell formation problem, such as (1) how many cells should be formatted, (2) how many workers should be assigned in each cell, and (3) how many workers should be assigned on the shortened conveyor line when a part of the conveyor assembly line should be converted to cells, in order to optimize the system performance which is defined as the total throughput time. Then a comparison analysis based on numerical experiments is addressed. The results indicate that the traditional conveyor assembly line is not appropriate in the situation where the number of product type is increasing, and the assembly cell system can achieve higher system performance of productivity.