A Genetic Programming Methodology for the Solution of the Cell-Formation Problem

The problem of identifying machine cells and corresponding part families in cellular manufacturing has been extensively researched over the last thirty years. However, the complexity of the problem and the considerable number of issues involved in its solution create the need for increasingly efficient algorithms. In this report we investigate the use of Genetic Programming for the solution of a simple version of the problem. Genetic Programming is initially employed to attack individual cell formation problems. In a second stage, Genetic Programming evolves a similarity coefficient for the solution of any cell-formation problem.