Measuring matrix-based cell formation with alternative routings

A good measure is necessary to evaluate the goodness of grouping in cellular manufacturing. For simple group technology (GT) problems, there are some grouping measures available; the most cited ones are grouping efficiency and grouping efficacy. A grouping measure, which considers alternative routings, is not available for the generalised GT problems. In this paper a new measure called alternative routing grouping (ARG) efficiency is proposed and its desirable properties are derived. Not only can this alternative routing grouping efficiency be used in the generalised GT problems, but it can also be used in the simple GT problems. The computation of the alternative routing grouping efficiency is illustrated with examples, and results of empirical tests on a set of known problems are also reported in this paper. The alternative routing grouping efficiency is extended to the simple GT measures. Grouping efficiency suffers from a weak discriminating capability and grouping efficacy has relatively a better discriminating capability. It is proved that the ARG efficiency has better discriminating capability than the existing measures, and this measure can evaluate the effectiveness of grouping in both simple and generalised cell formation problems with alternative process plans.