Efficiency measurement of alternative machine component grouping solutions via data envelopment analysis

Much current research in the area of cellular manufacturing (CM) has focused on the development of cell formation procedures. Many of these procedures yield alternative solutions corresponding to various numbers of clusters or various threshold values. This paper illustrates how data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be used to measure the efficiency of alternative machine component grouping solutions given the existence of multiple inputs and/or outputs in the transformation process with no a priori weightings. An interesting managerial implication that emerged from this study was that hybrid or partial cellular layouts can, in fact, be efficient. Accordingly, pilot cells can be implemented to gain experience with cellular manufacturing and then incrementally implemented plant wide.<>