Robles-León, Wilfredo

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Understanding operator preferences towards manufacturing cell task assignments
(2013) Robles-León, Wilfredo; Cesaní-Vázquez, Viviana I.; College of Engineering; Rodríguez, Betzabé; Seijo, Roberto; Department of Industrial Engineering; Montejo, Luis
Empirical research has shown that the majority of cellular manufacturing (CM) implementations do not consider in their design and operational phases socio-technical factors. However, in practice the performance and success of CM systems are directly linked to the degree in which these factors are considered. This research proposes the development of a quantitative model to describe and quantify operators’ preferences and their impact on system performance. A modified multi-commodity transportation model using a network flow algorithm is proposed to assign operators among cells in specific operations across established periods. The linear programming model has the objective of minimizing the costs to assign, and operator’s dissatisfaction. The model also considers capacity and demand constraints, and operator’s skills. The suitability of this model for developing worker assignments is tested using data from an empirical study that reflects that socio-technical factors can be incorporated without impacting system performance.