An Enhanced Tabu Search Cell Formation Algorithm for a Cellular Manufacturing System

Abstract

The major benefit of using Cellular manufacturing systems (CMS) is the improvement in efficiency and reduction in the production time. In a CMS the part families and machine parts are identified to minimise the inter and intracellular movement and maximise the utilisation of machines within each cell. Many scholars have proposed methods for the evaluation of machine cell part layouts with single routes; this paper introduces a modified Hybrid Tabu Search Algorithm (HTSA) referred to as Hybrid Algorithm in this study for machine cell part layouts having multiple routes as well. The primary objective of this paper is to minimise the inter and intracellular movement using a hybrid algorithm. The paper presents a comparative analysis of the existing and the proposed algorithms, proving that the proposed hybrid algorithm is simple, easy to understand, and has a remarkable efficiency with a runtime of 5.6 seconds.