A series—parallel redundant reliability system for cellular manufacturing design

Abstract

This paper presents a novel, multi-objective mixed-integer programming model for designing a cellular manufacturing system (CMS) that minimizes the total cost and maximizes the overall system reliability. In general, it is impossible to avoid production interruptions while handling machine breakdowns. In this situation, changing the process route dynamically can provide a quick response to meet production requirements. By assuming alternative process plans for operation-part requirements, the concept of the 'reliable route' proposed in the literature is extended. In a redundant reliability system with a series-parallel configuration, each reliable route is associated with an operation of a part (i.e. an operation-part) as a parallel subsystem. This route consists of a number of units or alternative machines allocated to cells in such a way that parts are processed with the maximum reliability for a given period of time. When an alternative machine breaks down, unprocessed parts are transferred to the next predetermined machine on the reliable route in order to complete their processes. While the reliable route approach increases the overall system reliability, the operational costs of the system also increase. To assess the present proposed model as a useful decision tool for the manager, various numerical examples are solved and analysed. Finally, the related computational results are reported.

Operational reliability and quality loss of diversely configurated manufacturing cells with heterogeneous feedstocks

“…Das et al 4 proposed a multi-objective mixed integer programing model to optimize the design of cellular manufacturing systems, where the machine failure was assumed to obey an exponential distribution. Safaei et al 5 constructed a cellular manufacturing system with a serial-parallel configuration to improve the redundant reliability of cells, where machine failure was also distributed exponentially. Also, many other researches applied the exponential reliability of machines in their performance analysis of manufacturing cells, for example, the performance evaluation of an FMC under random operational conditions, 6 the multi-state performance measure of manufacturing cells, 7 and the analysis for the operational performance of a manufacturing cell considering the effect of degraded operation modes.…”

Optimal Transmission Line Assignment Considering Reliabilities and Assignment Cost in the Multi-State Network

“…As network reliability plays an important role in ensuring the normal output of data, many researches focus on reliability assurance or reliability improvement. For a given network, in order to guarantee the network reliability, lots of studies focus on the network backup paths or the spare paths [19]- [24], the network tolerance [25], [26], the network resilience [27], [28], etc.…”

Comparisons of standby and parallel systems in reliability, replacement, scheduling and application

“…Two typical redundancies are standby and parallel systems, which have been studied extensively in the literature. [3][4][5] However, there is no study to compare them from the viewpoints of reliability measures, maintenance policies, engineering applications, etc.…”