Modeling complexity of cellular manufacturing systems

Manufacturing systems are complex because of the many elements and subsystems of a manufacturing operation and their interactions. This study proposes a utility function for complexity and its curve is drawn according to the mutual relationship between the complexity and utility. The underlying trend that the system becomes more and more complex in an ever-changing environment is analyzed in terms of the variation of complexity with time. From the information-theoretical point of view, the models of static entropy and operational entropy of cellular manufacturing systems are developed and the cognizance of the states of manufacturing resources is also illustrated. Finally, an example is used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology.