Cellular manufacturing design 1996–2021: a review and introduction to applications of Industry 4.0

As globalisation and competition grow rapidly, adopting a flexible manufacturing philosophy becomes more critical for manufacturers. Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) is among one of the most favourable ones which has been deeply studied in academia since this philosophy was coined in 1925. To design the manufacturing system efficiently and effectively, the management team needs to have a comprehensive representation of the definitions, classifications, solution approach to cellular manufacturing design problems. In this study, exact methods, heuristic approaches, metaheuristic techniques, and artificial intelligence strategies for cellular manufacturing design are reviewed. A comparison of solution approaches is discussed and based on this analysis, some suggestions for future research are proposed. Moreover, we tried to highlight the importance of investigating sustainability decisions related to CMS problems, and integration of supply chain decisions with CMS decisions which have not been sufficiently studied to identify a research direction for researchers to model and analyse those issues. Finally, we briefly discuss the placement of CMS as one of the major production systems in the industry 4.0 evolution paradigm. Reviewing the adoption of industry 4.0 techniques by CMS sheds light on the contribution of methodological approaches in transition to intelligent CMS.