A Hamiltonian path approach to reordering the part-machine matrix for cellular manufacturing

Abstract

The formation of machine and part groups is a central issue in the design of cellular manufacturing systems. The part-machine incidence matrix has formed the basis of several techniques for cell formation. In this paper, we propose formulating machine and part ordering as a Hamiltonian Path Problem. Similarity coefficients are used to form a distance measure for machines and parts. The resulting solutions are shown to be better than those obtained from binary clustering on a set of test problems.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

RONALD G. ASKIN

Based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMC 85-44993.

STEVEN H. CRESSWELL

Based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMC 88-10296.

ASOO J. VAKHARIA

Based upon work supported by a Summer Research Grant awarded by the College of Business and Public Administration at the University of Arizona.