Title: Cell formation with ordinal-level data using ART1-based neural networks

Authors: R. SudhakaraPandian, S.S. Mahapatra

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Orissa, Pin-769 008, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Orissa, Pin-769 008, India

Abstract: In Cell Formation Problem (CFP), the zero-one Part Machine Incidence Matrix (PMIM) is the common input to any clustering algorithm. The output is generated with two or more machine cells and corresponding part families. The major demerit with such models is that real-life production factors such as operation time, sequence of operations and lot size of the product are not accounted for. In this paper, the operation sequence of the parts is considered to enhance the quality of the solution. A neural network-based algorithm is proposed to solve the CFP. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested with example problems and the results are compared with the existing methods found in the literature. The results presented clearly shows that the performance of the proposed ART1-based algorithm is comparable with the other methods.

Keywords: cell formation; CF; ART1; grouping efficiency; neural networks; cellular manufacturing; manufacturing cells.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2008.018005

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2008 Vol.4 No.5, pp.618 - 630

Published online: 26 Apr 2008 *

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