Evolutionary programming for designing manufacturing cells

In this paper, first cellular manufacturing is introduced and its advantages over other layout types are mentioned. Later, evolutionary programming is briefly explained and typical cellular design issues are discussed. The objective of the cellular design considered in this paper is to form part families such that the total number of machine types needed is minimized. The possibility of extending this problem to include the remainder cell case is also mentioned. After briefly reviewing the available literature, the proposed evolutionary programming application is illustrated with an example.