Application of soft computing techniques for cell formation problems: A review

The current paper reviewed the relevance of soft computing techniques in cellular manufacturing layout design. Within this framework, the capability of important soft computing techniques like genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing (SA), artificial neural network (ANN), tabu search (TS), ant colony optimization (ACO) is reviewed. These techniques are effectively useful to solve design tasks and related issues. This paper presents a summary of some important published research works on the meta-heuristics models for cell formation problem. From the literature review, it has been found that minimization of inter and intracellular movement, reduction of setup and throughput times, reduced movement of material handling and maximization of machine utilization are the primary objectives of the cellular manufacturing design.