Relative performances of similarity and dissimilarity measures

Similarity or dissimilarity coefficient is used to measure the groupability of clusters in group technology. This paper addresses the issues relating to the performance of a number of most commonly used similarity coefficient s along with their important characteristics,; appropriateness and applicat ions to manufacturing and other related fields. Since all the coefficients are-not suitable to evaluate all group technology problems, results collect ed from the available literature are compared according to their matching c riteria. A new approach to measure relative performance of different simila rity and dissimilarity coefficients is presented in this research. Numerica l results are also presented to demonstrate the closeness of different simi larity and dissimilarity coefficients. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.