Cell formation using evolutionary algorithms with certain constraints

Cellular manufacturing is well known as an effective way to improve workshop performances. There are various methods to design cells. Most of them do not take into account constraints specific to the workshop. We are interested in the design of manufacturing cells that can take into account specific constraints (for example, certain machines may have to stay together in the same cell because they will share a common resource or certain machines may have to be separated because they will produce interferences). The proposed method uses evolutionary algorithms. The initial solutions are created with an algorithm based on a random tree search and then the solutions evolve thanks to operators designed so as to satisfy, at any stage, the constraints. The suggested method is illustrated through a problem with a known optimum in order to verify that the evolutionary algorithm can find the optimum solution.