Machine cell formation: using the simulated annealing algorithm

Abstract The application of the simulated annealing algorithm to machine cell formation problems is presented in this paper. This general algorithm is not influenced by the initial machine-component incidence matrix and has the potential of being extended to solve more complex problems. The concept of penalty costs is introduced into the objective functions to prevent the solution from violating given constraints. Two cooling schedules for the simulated annealing algorithm are adopted to detect the applicability of the algorithm to machine cell formation problems. The results show that the simulated annealing algorithm is able to find a near-optimal solution within a polynomial time even for the large-scale problems of machine cell formation.

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