Routes selection for the cell formation problem with alternative part process plans

This article proposes a two stage procedure for the cell formation problem with alternative process plans. At the first stage of the procedure, the route selection problem is solved with the objective of maximizing the sum of compatibility coefficients among selected process plans. At the second stage, part families are formed based on the result of the first stage using the p-median problem. The grouping solutions based on the proposed procedure are compared with those of the generalized p-median model in terms of the number of exceptional elements, grouping efficiency and grouping efficacy.