Group Technology Cell Formation Using Production Data-based P-median Model

This study is concerned with the machine part grouping m cellular manufacturing. To group machines into the set of machine cells and parts into the set of part families, new p-median model considering the production data such as the operation sequences and production volumes for parts is proposed. Unlike existing p-median models relying on the classical binary part-machine incidence matrix which does not reflect the real production factors which seriously impact on machine-part grouping, the proposed p-median model reflects the production factors by adopting the new similarity coefficient based on the production data-based part-machine incidence matrix of which each non-binary entry indicates actual intra-cell or inter-cell flows to or from machines by parts. Computation test compares the proposed p median model favorably.