Component grouping for GT applications—a fuzzy clustering approach with validity measure

Abstract

The variety of the currently available component grouping methodologies and\nalgorithms provide a good theoretical basis for implementing GT principles in\ncellular manufacturing environments. However, the practical application of the\ngrouping approaches can be further enhanced through extensions to the widely used\ngrouping algorithms and the development of criteria for partitioning components\ninto an 'optimum' number of groups. Extensions to the fuzzy clustering algorithm\nand a definition of a new validity measure are proposed in this paper. These\nare aimed at improving the practical applicability of the fuzzy clustering\napproach for family formation in cellular manufacturing environments. Component\npartitioning is based upon assessing the compactness of components within a group\nand overlapping between the component groups. The developed grouping\nmethodology is experimentally demonstrated using an industrial case study and\nseveral well known component grouping examples from the published literature.