Group technology revisited: A simple and robust algorithm with enhanced capability

A simple, robust and efficient sorting algorithm that can be used to perform the principal function of group technology is presented. Several numeric examples are given, and methods for optimizing the sort to increase the density of grouping explored. The robustness of the algorithm is demonstrated in a series of examples, most of which are extracted from examples cited by others. The algorithm is implemented on MATLAB and the software is available from the authors.