Workforce Assignment into Large-Sized Virtual Cells Using Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) Approach

Much has been reported in literature on virtual cell formation problems while a limited work is reported on worker assignments. Virtual Cellular Manufacturing Systems (VCMS) have come into existence, replacing traditional Cellular Manufacturing Systems (CMS), to meet highly dynamic production conditions in terms of demand, production lots, processing times, product mix and production sequences. Although the problem of worker assignment and flexibility in cell based manufacturing environments has been studied and analyzed in plenty using various heuristics/mathematical models, application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), adapted from the biological neural networks, is the recent development in this field exploiting the ability of ANN to work out mathematically-difficult-to-solve problems. In this attempt, the previous work of the author has been further developed and an attempt has been made to apply Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) approach into worker assignment problems for higher order virtual cells i.e., three cells configurations and analyze the suitability of LVQ approach in terms of successful classification rate and simulation parameters for a number of VCMS periods.