A mathematical programming model for manufacturing cell formation to develop multiple configurations

This paper presents and analyses a mathematical model for the design of manufacturing cells which considers two conflicting objectives such as the heterogeneity of cells and the intercell moves. A genetic algorithm (GA) based solution methodology is developed for the model which is also solved using an optimization package. The model is suitable for getting multiple potential solutions in a structured way for the cell formation problem by making a trade-off between the two objectives, instead of reaching at a single negotiating solution. This model provides the decision maker the flexibility of choosing a suitable cell design from different alternatives by considering the practical constraints. A part assignment heuristic is also developed by which part-families can be identified and is integrated with the GA based solution procedure. A comparison of the proposed method is made with other seven methods using 36 problems from the literature. Grouping efficacy is the basis for comparison and it is found to give reasonably good results.