Study on Operator Assignment Considering Operator Absence in Cellular Manufacturing System

The cell manufacturing system is a manufacturing system that can simultaneously achieve flexibility and responsiveness. In the cell manufacturing system, the skills of each operator have a significant effect on productivity. We had proposed the method of operator allocation based on OJT (On the Job Training) in our previous study, and the objective of this method was to avoid inadequate OJT in the event of worker absence [1]. However, an operator's absence can seriously disrupt production planning. On the other hand, not much research has been done on production planning considering the operators' absence. Then, we moved our objective from OJT affection to productivity. This study proposes an operator allocation method that considers the sudden absence of operators in cell production. A “skill index” is used for operator allocation, which is an indicator of the operator's skill level. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing the results with those obtained when the absence is not considered. As a result, the proposed method can be expected to reduce productivity loss due to absenteeism.