A Review and Analysis of Comparative Performance Studies on Functional and Cellular Manufacturing Layouts

Atul Agarwal and Joseph Sarkis

Computers and Industrial Engineering, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 77-89, 1998

This paper provides a comprehensive review of studies and literature that focus on the comparative and relative performance of Functional Layout (FL) and Cellular Manufacturing (CM) systems. Over the previous decade a number of studies have focused on the performance superiority of CM over FL systems, while others have identified with the performance superiority of FL over CM systems. Overall, there appears to be a general lack of consensus on the "ideal" conditions for the relative performance superiority of CM or FL systems. The review of this research is motivated by a need to identify and compile the existing isolated comparative performance studies on CM and FL manufacturing systems and identify characteristics of these systems and studies that could provide insights into these conflicting findings. In addition, the review identifies gaps in the comparative performance literature on cellular and functional manufacturing systems.

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