Particle Swarm Optimization for natural grouping in context of group technology application

Cell-formation problem (CFP) addresses the issue of creation of part families based on similarity in processing requirements and the grouping of machines into groups based on their ability to process those specific part families. The CFP is combinatorial in nature and due to difficulty faced in solving related mathematical programming problems; efforts have been made to use evolutionary approaches. Literature highlights that there are many advantages of converting batch type manufacturing system (BTMS) to cellular manufacturing system (CMS). In this paper, mathematical model has been proposed for groups to be emerged naturally. As mathematical model of CFP becomes NP- complete in nature, researchers advocate the use of meta-heuristics. Over the years, many different metaheuristic methods have been used to solve the CFP in group technology application. In the present paper, evolutionary population based method known as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) hybridized with assignment algorithm is used to solve cell formation problems. Due to these proposed changes, efficiencies of cell formed significantly increase in comparison to the results available in the literature. Proposed hybrid algorithm is applied to solve 30 different types of randomly generated and 10 standard CFPs, a large verity in terms of number of parts and number of machines required by these parts. For this algorithm, optimal values of parameters were also found with the use of Taguchi method. It is found that the proposed changes in algorithm and parameters obtained significantly impact the results in terms of efficiency values.

[1]  Inyong Ham,et al.  Group Technology: Applications to Production Management , 2011 .

[2]  Lih-Yuan Deng,et al.  Orthogonal Arrays: Theory and Applications , 1999, Technometrics.

[3]  M. Chandrasekharan,et al.  MODROC: an extension of rank order clustering for group technology , 1986 .

[4]  S. P. Mitrofanov.  SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF GROUP TECHNOLOGY , 1961 .

[5]  M. Chandrasekharan,et al.  GROUPABIL1TY: an analysis of the properties of binary data matrices for group technology , 1989 .

[6]  Jennifer Werfel,et al.  Orthogonal Arrays Theory And Applications , 2016 .

[7]  Vivek Srivastava,et al.  Ant colony optimization for group technology applications , 2011 .

[8]  Ming Liang,et al.  Erratum to "A new genetic algorithm for the machine/part grouping problem involving processing times and lot sizes" [Computers & Industrial Engineering 45 (4) (2003) 713-731] , 2004, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[9]  J. King.  Machine-component grouping in production flow analysis: an approach using a rank order clustering algorithm , 1980 .

[10]  John H. Holland,et al.  Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems: An Introductory Analysis with Applications to Biology, Control, and Artificial Intelligence , 1992 .

[11]  P. Waghodekar,et al.  Machine-component cell formation in group technology: MACE , 1984 .

[12]  G. K. Adil,et al.  Cell formation considering alternate routeings , 1996 .

[13]  John L. Burbidge.  Operation scheduling with GT and PBC , 1988 .

[14]  David Bennett,et al.  Production Flow Analysis , 2015 .

[15]  Farnaz Barzinpour,et al.  Machine–part cell formation using a hybrid particle swarm optimization , 2010 .

[16]  John McAuley,et al.  Machine grouping for efficient production , 1972 .

[17]  D. Cao,et al.  A robust cell formation approach for varying product demands , 2005 .

[18]  Larry R. Taube,et al.  Weighted similarity measure heuristics for the group technology machine clustering problem , 1985 .

[19]  Philip M. Wolfe,et al.  Selection of a Threshold Value Based on Material Handling Cost in Machine-Component Grouping , 1987 .

[20]  M. Chandrasekharan,et al.  An ideal seed non-hierarchical clustering algorithm for cellular manufacturing , 1986 .

[21]  Allan S. Carrie,et al.  Numerical taxonomy applied to group technology and plant layout , 1973 .

[22]  Maghsud Solimanpur,et al.  Genetic algorithm approach for solving a cell formation problem in cellular manufacturing , 2009, Expert Syst. Appl..

[23]  Warren R. DeVries,et al.  Group technology production methods in manufacture , 1991 .

[24]  Alberto Garcia-Diaz,et al.  Network flow procedures for the analysis of cellular manufacturing systems , 1996 .

[25]  R. S. Lashkari,et al.  Machine grouping problem in cellular manufacturing systems ― an integer programming approach , 1989 .

[26]  J. MacQueen.  Some methods for classification and analysis of multivariate observations , 1967 .

[27]  G. Margaret Fazakerley,et al.  A research report on the human aspects of group technology and cellular manufacture , 1976 .

[28]  R. Rajagopalan,et al.  Design of cellular production systems A graph-theoretic approach , 1975 .

[29]  Ming Liang,et al.  A new genetic algorithm for the machine/part grouping problem involving processing times and lot sizes , 2003, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[30]  Zhi-ming Wu,et al.  A genetic algorithm for manufacturing cell formation with multiple routes and multiple objectives , 2000 .

[31]  F. Boctor.  A Jinear formulation of the machine-part cell formation problem , 1991 .

[32]  Chih-Ming Liu,et al.  Machine cell formation: using the simulated annealing algorithm , 1993 .

[33]  M. Clerc,et al.  The swarm and the queen: towards a deterministic and adaptive particle swarm optimization , 1999, Proceedings of the 1999 Congress on Evolutionary Computation-CEC99 (Cat. No. 99TH8406).

[34]  Sebastián Lozano,et al.  A particle swarm optimization algorithm for part–machine grouping , 2006 .

[35]  Vivek Srivastava,et al.  On some measures for grouping efficiency , 2011 .

[36]  Marco Dorigo,et al.  Optimization, Learning and Natural Algorithms , 1992 .

[37]  Hamid Seifoddini,et al.  Single linkage versus average linkage clustering in machine cells formation applications , 1989 .

[38]  A. Attila Islier,et al.  Group technology by an ant system algorithm , 2005 .

[39]  Orlando Durán,et al.  Collaborative particle swarm optimization with a data mining technique for manufacturing cell design , 2010, Expert Syst. Appl..

[40]  Chao-Hsien Chu.  Cluster analysis in manufacturing cellular formation , 1989 .

[41]  F. Fred Choobineh,et al.  A framework for the design of cellular manufacturing systems , 1988 .