A comparative study of cell formation techniques: Experimental findings on data-dependency and solution quality

A large number of techniques for solving the cell formation problem has emerged in recent years. However, little effort has been spent on determining the procedures' relative performance. This paper identifies four problem areas for which important decisions must be made in connection with a comparative study: asymmetry among procedures with respect to input data, sensitivity to input data, ability of cell formation techniques to generate different solutions, and criteria for acceptable cell performance. Relying on a new taxonomy that categorizes cell formation techniques based on required input data, and a new approach to describing and manipulating shop data, this paper illustrates how choices within the four areas above can be resolved within the context of a comparative study. The experiments uncover fundamental relations between cell formation techniques, the types of input data they use, the characteristics of the data that drive the models, and the resulting performance.