Genetic algorithms for cell formation problem under alternative routes

Cell formation is an important, critical and difficult step in cellular manufacturing. While forming the cells, generally the part routes are used. Introducing high capacity machines capable of performing different manufacturing operations makes it possible to manufacture parts according to several alternative part routes. By ignoring alternative routes, one may miss possibly more effective manufacturing cell groupings. On the other hand, considering alternative routes increases the complexity of the problem. In this study, we developed a genetic algorithm to solve the cell formation problem with alternative routes. The algorithm is also capable of determining the number of cells. Computational experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the algorithm. Throughout the computational experiments, we verified that the genetic algorithm is effective not only for cell formation problems with alternative routes but also for general cell formation problems.