Aplicación de la Búsqueda Armónica para el problema de formación de celdas de manufactura

Abstract

Introduction: Cellular Manufacturing (CM) is an application of group technology that consists of grouping components in part families and machines into cells, via the decomposition of a complex manufacturing system into small systems, which attend the operations of entire part families. In this work, we developed a linear programming model that integrates production costs with costs for transfers between cells. Besides, using an approach algorithm method called Harmony Search is solved the mathematical model.

Objective: Evaluate the performance of the alternative Harmony Search and its machine allocation strategies in a cellular manufacturing problem.

Method: The mathematical model consists in a linear programming structure in which there are binary variables to determine the assignment of the operations of products to different machines in diverse cells, and integer variables to count the requirements of machines and the number of transfers between cells. In order to validate the model, we use modified instances based on the literature review and set in GAMS software using the CPLEX solver, also, is developed a metaheuristic algorithm in MATLAB in order to give an approximate solution.

Results:  The proposed Harmony Search and its variants can provide highlighted results taking advantage of the exploitation approach of the search space.

Conclusions: The Harmony Search and its variants can provide outstanding solutions in considerably short times; nevertheless, it is necessary to implement strategies to explore the search space in order to avoid falling into local optima.