A genetic algorithm for layout problems in cellular manufacturing systems

The layout problem is one of important decision in cellular manufacturing systems (CMS). After deciding the cells and the intercellular movements in the cell formation stage, it is necessary to do proper layout of machines to get effective utilization of CMS. Proper layout will minimize material handling cost to a greater extent. In this paper, a mathematical formulation is presented. As it is NP-hard, a genetic algorithm is adopted as solution methodology. In order to validate the performance of the algorithm a well-known quadratic assignment problems (QAP) that deal with location are taken for testing, which shows that the proposed methodology provides promising results. The effectiveness of GA approach is evaluated with numerical examples. The cost performance is compared with other approaches. The intra cell layout problem is discussed.