Efficient solutions to the cell-formation problem with multiple routings via a double-loop genetic algorithm

We present a genetic approach for finding efficient solutions to the problem of forming manufacturing cells for products having multiple routings. We consider the case where there are two criteria. The method that we propose seeks to generate the efficient set of solutions, thar is the set of non-dominated solutions. The manager may then choose a solution knowing the consequences for each of the objectives. We address the computational difficulty of this problem and present a numerical example. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.