Abstract
GT lines are classified as those in which all moves are of either an in-sequence or a by-passing type and those which contain backward movements. The former group is referred to as GT flow-lines, and a method of the group formation is discussed in this paper. First, the problem to determine such a part family that has a production volume enough for forming a line out of object parts, and that minimizes the number of machines to be arranged in the line (part family formation problem) is picked up, and this problem is formulated as a 0-1 integer programming problem (P). Next, after indicating a procedure to determine the lower bound of (P), a knapsack problem is solved to show the method which strengthens the lower bound. Finally, conditions of the branch and bound method for determining the optimal solution of (P) are confirmed and effectiveness of the method is proved by computational experience.
