Selection of optimal capacity for reconfigurable machines during lean manufacturing

Abstract

Presently manufacturing industries are facing the challenge of increased market volatility and unpredictability. Capacity control is an effective measure to address this problem by utilizing the flexibility in the plant capacity. This research paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) based methodology to optimally select levels of capacity for machines which are reconfigurable in nature. The objective function for the optimization problem is minimization of an error with takt time. Takt as a key feature of lean manufacturing is considered in the model to manufacture the products in a fixed rate as decided by their respective demands and available production time. A hypothetical numerical problem is illustrated to describe the selection methodology, GA computation steps and the solution procedure.