Designing and Implementing Cellular Manufacturing Strategies for Improved Efficiency and Productivity

Industries are stepping up their game with efficient production systems to thrive in today’s fiercely competitive market. Cellular Manufacturing (CM), a strategy that is becoming popular, attempts to enhance operations in batch production and job shop settings. Specifically, it focuses on (i) ranking and prioritizing key CM factors identified from literature and validated by academic and industry experts, (ii) evaluating the current status and potential of CM in Indian manufacturing companies, and (iii) developing a solid implementation framework for CM and validating it. The study identified a total of 17 factors that influence CM implementation. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) were the first two Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methodologies used to order these elements. Additionally, the study employed the DEMATEL methodology to explore the relationships between key CM factors and to differentiate between causal and effect factors. Moreover, the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) strategy, along with MICMAC analysis, was utilized to create a foundational model for CM implementation.