modified ci-algorithm - a heuristic for the gt-problem for the case of multiple process plans

abstract: the group technology problem deals with the decomposition of a manufacturing system into smaller subsystems which are easier to manage and organize. it is also known as the group technology concept and applied usually to identify machine cells and corresponding part families that are isolated in such a way that no flow of parts between those cells has to take place. this problem can be solved by the use of clustering algorithms. kusiak et al. developed some heuristics that are less time consuming than the common optimization techniques. a modification of one of those heuristics shall be presented in this paper. the modification is necessary in order to apply the algorithm to some special form of group-technology problems: for thecase of multiple process plans.;