A similarity coefficient measure and machine-parts grouping in cellular manufacturing systems

For more than three decades, similarity coefficient measures--one of the im portant tools for solving group technology problems--have gained the attent ion of the research community in cellular manufacturing systems. A new simi larity coefficient measure that uses a set of important characteristic prop erties for grouping is developed here for use as an intermediate tool to fo rm cohesive cells. A mathematical model that uses this similarity coefficie nt for optimally solving the cell-formation problems in cellular manufactur ing is developed. A heuristic procedure that improves the optimal methodolo gy in term of solution capability of the large instances is devised for an efficient solution. Both the optimal methodology and the heuristic are appl ied to some well-known problems from literature to compare the grouping eff iciencies. The similarity coefficient and the solution methodologies develo ped are able to solve the cell formation problems efficiently.