Grouping efficiency measures in cellular manufacturing: A survey and critical review

The need for measurement of grouping efficiency in cellular manufacturing systems is widely acknowledged and a large amount of research has focused on developing new cell formation procedures. Perhaps the most significant hurdle associated with conducting studies in comparing and evaluating cell formation procedures is the absence of performance measures. This paper presents a brief, critical review and a comparative study of some existing measures. Different approaches to efficiency measures are compiled and classified from various sources. A simulation study on the effects of cell loading, block-diagonalization, different algorithms, static and dynamic routeing on efficiency measures is also discussed along with their comparisons. Discussions on the suitability of an overall measure are provided. Requirements of efficiency measures and recommendations for future research in this area are also pointed out.