CLUSTER-ANALYSIS TO MINIMIZE SEQUENCE-DEPENDENT CHANGEOVER TIMES

Cluster analysis is applied to reduce sequence dependent changeover ti mes among products in a manufacturing setting. A product grouping proc edure which aggregates like products with similar production and setup requirements forms the basis of a planning system designed to perform short-term scheduling at a particular manufacturing facility. Integra tion of the grouping technique served to implicitly minimize product c hangeover times and resulted in significantly improved schedules. When tested on randomly generated job sequencing problems, this grouping p rocedure generated good, near optimal solutions.