Cell formation in group technology: Review, evaluation and directions for future research

This paper discusses and reviews a fundamental issue in cellular manufacturing - cell formation. This problem is of strategic and operational importance in that it affects the fundamental structure and the overall layout of a cellular manufacturing system. We first provide a comprehensive mathematical formulation of the cell formation problem and then propose a methodology-based classification of prior research. This classification is used in reviewing the most recent literature on the cell formation problem. Based on a comparison and critical evaluation, we highlight the shortcomings of current approaches and also outline directions for future research.