The buffer allocation problem is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, and it is an important design problem in manufacturing systems. The research proposed in this paper concerns a product line consisting of n unreliable machines with n − 1 buffers and a preventive maintenance...

Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) readily addresses the dynamic needs of the customers in terms of variety and quality. At present, there is a need to produce a wide range of quality products in limited time span. On-time delivery of customers’ orders is critical in make-to-order (MTO)...

The cell formation (CF) is one of the most important steps in the design of a cellular manufacturing system (CMS), which it includes machines’ grouping in cells and part grouping as separate families, so that the costs are minimized. The various aspects of the problem should be considered in a...