A novel congruent organizational design methodology using group technology and a nested genetic algorithm

A key concept in congruent organizational design is the so-called strategic grouping, which involves the aggregation of task functions, positions, and assets into units. Group technology (GT) has emerged as a manufacturing philosophy for improving productivity in batch production systems, while retaining the flexibility of a job shop production. In this paper, a methodology [nested genetic algorithm (NGA)] to group tasks and assets into several clusters [decision makers (DMs), command cells] is proposed; this methodology employs concepts from GT and genetic algorithms (GAs) to minimize the weighted total workload, measured in terms of intra-DM and inter-DM coordination workloads. The numerical results show that the proposed NGA approach obtains a near-optimal layout of the organization, i.e., the assignment of platforms to tasks and the patterns of coordination achieve a nice tradeoff between inter-DM and intra-DM coordination workload.