Formation of Manufacturing Cell Using Theory and Considering Reliability

In this paper, a stochastic cell formation problem is studied considering the queuing theory and the reliability concept. a novel probabilistic mathematical model is presented considering interarrival times, processing times, and machines' breakdown. since the cell formation problem is np-hard, two algorithms are developed based on genetic and modified particle swarm optimization (mpso) algorithms. since the structure of the problem contains multiple irregularities, a new heuristic method is developed, which produces effective feasible solutions on demand. a deterministic branch and bound (b&b) algorithm is used to evaluate the results of modified particle swarm optimization algorithm and the genetic algorithm. the results indicate that proposed algorithms have better performance than the b&b algorithm of lingo software according to the mixed effect of solution quality and computational times. the solution of two metaheurstic algorithms is compared by the t-test method. ultimately, the results of numerical examples indicate that considering reliability has significant effect on the block structures of machine-part.