Formation of general GT cells: an operation-based approach

In this paper, we study the formation of general Group Technology cells based on the operation requirements of parts and operation capabilities of machines. Parts are first grouped into families by using a similarity coefficient based on common operation types. An integer model is then developed to solve the problem of machine group selection. The model takes into account machine cost, variable production cost, setup cost, and intracell material handling cost. A greedy heuristic, a minimum increment heuristic and a simulated annealing heuristic are proposed for solving the model more efficiently. The computational results have shown that the heuristic methods perform well when compared to the optimal solutions. The effect of changing cost structure on the performance of heuristic procedures is also investigated.