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...

Technological advancement in the manufacturing system in current scenario is inevitable due to today’s customer-driven and volatile nature of the market. Implementation of agent technology in a manufacturing system increases flexibility which handles uncertainty generated due to advance...

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...