Generation of Block Diagonal forms Using Hierarchical Clustering for Cell Formation Problems

While cell formation (CF) problems have been studied for few decades, the purpose of this paper is to advance the solution technique using one classical approach, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). In the application of HCA, one technical challenge is to cluster both machines and parts simultaneously. In this paper, this challenge is addressed by quantifying the coupling between machines and parts in the clustering process. One feature of the proposed method is to generate block diagonal forms that show some intermediate sorting of machines and parts without specifying the structural criteria (e.g., the number of cells). Consequently, engineers can specify the structural criteria after inspecting the block diagonal forms instead of specifying them at the beginning. Some numerical examples from literature are used to examine and verify the proposed method.