Grouping PCB_s for set-up reduction: a maximum spanning tree approach

SUMMARY

Grouping of PCBs is a known means for reducing the total set-up time in the automatic assembly of PCB_s. Using the well-known manufacturing philosophy, Group technology, PCB_s and components are grouped on the basis of their similarity. This paper introduces a new measure of similarity, called the cosine similarity coefficient, as an appropriate basis for PCB grouping. A heuristic based on the maximum spanning tree (MST) has been developed. The heuristic performs very well for a number of trial problems of varying sizes. In view of its ability to accommodate the special characteristics such as splitting a PCB between two groups and in view of its low computational time, the proposed heuristic can be a useful tool for the production scheduling of PCB_s.

Notes

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