A SURVEY OF DESIGN METHODS FOR MANUFACTURING CELLS

In the recent years a new manufacturing system has emerged known as Ce llular Manufacturing (CM) which utilizes the philosophy of group techn ology. Cellular manufacturing also known as group production can be de scribed as a manufacturing process which produces families of parts wi thin a single line or a group of machines operated manually or automat ically. This paper discusses the available techniques used for cluster analysis and design of manufacturing cells and also illustrates a lis t of available methods and techniques used for clustering and their ap plication in the manufacturing area.