Title: A modified revised P-median approach to cell formation

Authors: Adnan M. Mukattash, Ghaleb Y. Abbasi, Khaldoun K. Tahboub, Mazin Bakir Adil

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Department, The Hashemite University, Zarka, Jordan. ' Industrial Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. ' Industrial Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. ' University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract: The point of weakness of the revised P-median approach for solving the cell configuration, problem using cluster analysis, is that the optimal number of cells might not be achieved by this approach. The optimal number of cells is the solution, which gives the minimum sum of the number of voids inside the diagonal blocks and number of the ones outside the blocks. This paper presents a modified approach to overcome the point of weakness of the revised P-median approach, by specifying the number of cells in advance, and by controlling the cell size, with lower and/or upper bounds of machines inside the cell.

Keywords: group technology; cell formation; P-median; mathematical programming; manufacturing cells; cellular manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2007.011435

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2007 Vol.2 No.1, pp.51 - 60

Published online: 30 Nov 2006 *

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