Fuzzy ART K-Means Clustering Technique: a hybrid neural network approach to cellularmanufacturing systems

Abstract

Cellular manufacturing system (CMS) is regarded as an efficient production strategy for batch type of production. Literature suggests, since the last two decades neural network has been intensively used in cell formation while production factor such as operation time is merely considered. This paper presents a new hybrid neural network approach, Fuzzy ART K-Means Clustering Technique (FAKMCT), to solve the part machine grouping problem in CMS considering operation time. The performance of the proposed technique is tested with problems from open literature and the results are compared to the existing clustering models such as simple K-means algorithm and modified ART1 algorithm as found in the recent literature. The results support the better performance of the proposed algorithm. The novelty of this study lies in the simple and efficient methodology to produce quick solutions with least computational efforts.