Procedures for the part family/machine group identification problem in cellular manufacturing
讨论了单元制造系统设计中的单元形成问题，提出了一个包含四种基本解决方法的框架，并分类评述了70多种相关程序，指出该过程难以形式化，需要大量人工判断。
Abstract One of the first, and most important, problems faced in the design of a cellular manufacturing system is the identification of part families and machine groups and the simultaneous or subsequent evaluation of the associated cell properties. This cell formation problem is embedded in a larger cell design process. This article first discusses the general cell design process and its objectives and then proposes a framework for structuring the cell formation problem, which encompasses four basic solution approaches. These approaches are based on the fundamental ways part families and machine groups are identified and matched within the cell formation process. The framework is then used to classify descriptive and analytic procedures for the part family/machine group identification problem found in the literature. In all, over 70 such contributions are categorized and briefly reviewed. Promising procedures are identified and areas where additional research is needed are highlighted. It can be concluded that cell formation, despite the reliance on computerized procedures, is a process that is difficult to formalize and that requires a large portion of human insight and decision making.