Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1997

published_or_final_version / Industrial Engineering / Master / Master of Science in Engineering

This thesis proposes a cost based grouping procedure for Group Technology. The procedure is a two-stage graph partitioning approach to determine machine cells. Costs of work-in-process inventory, machine depreciation, machine setup and material handling are used as a basis for grouping. The procedure begins by selecting economic lot sizes for each part type and converting these values to machine requirements. The first stage assigns parts to machines of a common type. The second stage groups individual machines to cells, with each machine cell having a number of machines between chosen lower and upper limits. An additional check is given to the final groupings to see if adding a machine of any type can result in savings on the intergroup material handling cost. The process may iterate by next obtaining updated setup times and restarting.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1978. / Typescript.

In this thesis, we develop integer programming models which find the optimal part-machine family solutions, that disaggregate a factory process at the lowest cost. The groupings created using the methods presented in this thesis can then act as the basis for the application of Group Technology, which include machine placement, job scheduling, and part routing. Four exact 0−1 Linear Programming techniques are developed and presented. The first 0 − 1 Linear Programming technique only focuses on part subcontracting as a means to disaggregate, and the second only focuses on machine duplication to disaggregate. The final two methods both yield part-machine family disaggregation through simultaneous part subcontracting and machine duplication. Once these methods are applied to example problems, the results provide the exact solutions, which have not been found in previous work. / NSERC Discovery Grant

This research project analysed the characteristics of SMMEs in general, and suggests that collaborative manufacturing (CM) provides a means to both overcome the weaknesses and explore the strengths of SMMEs. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2008.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 1994. / Title from PDF t.p.

No description available.

This thesis addresses the problem of setting up a surface mount placement machine for production. The objective is to minimize the number of machine changeovers made during a production run consisting of a number of circuit cards. The solution to the problem involves two separate decisions. The first decision considers determining how to combine feeders together in "bays" or groups of feeders, and how to assign the bays to the circuit cards. The second decision considers the circuit card production sequence. A mathematical programming formulation is given, however, its solution is very difficult for problems of a realistic size. Several heuristic approaches are suggested and used to solve actual and test problems. The heuristic for bay design uses clustering techniques used in Group Technology while the sequencing problem is solved using heuristics based on solution techniques for the Traveling Salesman problem.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-151). Also available on the Internet.