Genetic algorithm approach for solving intercellular layout problems in cellular manufacturing systems

In this paper, a comprehensive genetic algorithm (GA) based solution methodology is proposed for solving layout problems in cellular manufacturing systems (CMS). The issue of intercellular layout is dealt with. The layout of facilities to locations called as facility location problems has been most researched. The optimal assignment of facilities to locations is a combinatorial optimization problem and has been proved NP-hard. The proposed solution methodology is compared to the facility locations algorithms as well as with the other existing algorithms. The novelty of the proposed genetic algorithm lies in the way the initial solution is constructed, and in the way the initial and final chromosomes for GA are obtained. In order to validate the performance of the algorithm, a well known CMS problems that deals with location, is taken for testing which shows that the proposed methodology provides promising results.