Product Group Technology Under Multiple Process Paths Based on Genetic Algorithm

Frequent setup activity during production affects the production efficiency which is caused by multi-variety and small-batch production mode, Group Technology can effectively shorten the setup time. Different process paths are formulated for each workpiece to increase scheduling flexibility by considering the dynamic information of the workshop. In this paper, a method based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) is proposed for workpiece grouping under multiple process paths. Firstly, the representation method of the product process path is determined, and then a mathematical model is established with the workpiece similarity as the objective function. Moreover, the improved Genetic Algorithm is used to find the optimal process path scheme of the workpiece. The multi-part segmented coding method, the crossing, and the mutation operation of the process path are designed. Finally, the workpiece grouping scheme is solved by constructing the process-workpiece correlation matrix to obtain the workpiece similarity matrix and the similarity fuzzy equivalence matrix. Various process paths of 8 kinds of electronic products are used to prove that the proposed method is effective.