Creation of Different Cell Layouts Using Part Assignment Process for Manufacturing a Traction Drive Speed Reducer

Abstract

: Cellular manufacturing is an advanced technique to improve the manufacturing efficiency. This paper is comparing the efficiency of three different layouts for manufacturing self-actuating traction drive speed reducer proposed by Flugrad and Qamhiyah in 2005. The original layout which was used to produce the speed reducer and two modified layouts based on part assignments. The second layout was made so as to minimize the sum of voids and exceptions. Then it is modified to take into account processing times of different parts of that speed reducer. Twenty six parts and ten different manufacturing processes were used in the analysis. A third layout was made for two manufacturing cells only instead of three found as optimum in the second layout. A comparison between the second and the third layout shows that the second layout is the best layout according to minimum sum of voids and exceptions, while the third layout is the best according to maximum sum of processing times inside the formed manufacturing cells. In conclusion, adopting cellular manufacturing has a great consequence on for both the design and optimization of any production system. Key words: Traditional layout, Cell formation, Manufacturing cells, Empty cell, Processing times, Exceptional elements and voids.