Solving the generalized cubic cell formation problem using discrete flower pollination algorithm

The manufacturing cell formation represents one of the important stages of the construction of cellular manufacturing systems. It focuses on grouping machines, parts and workers and assigning them to the corresponding cells. This assignment is guided by multiple objectives, and is subject to many constraints. In this paper, the focus is made on a variant of the cell formation problem, which is the Generalized Cubic Cell Formation Problem (GCCFP). In this study, a mathematical model is developed for this variant of the problem. Besides the multiple objectives considered in most research works, the quality index of the produced parts is also considered in this study. To solve the problem, a Discrete Flower Pollination Algorithm (DFPA) is developed. To validate the model and the DFPA, a set of randomly generated instances were solved using B&B under LINGO software, DFPA and Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm. The performance of DFPA, from the standpoint of the considered objectives and the time of calculation, has been tested. The experiment results show the efficiency of the developed method. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.