A comparative study of cell formation techniques: experimental findings on data-dependency and solution quality

A comparative study of cell formation techniques is conducted. Four problems areas related to comparative studies are identified. These are asymmetry among methodologies in relation to input data, sensitivity to input data, ability of cell formation methodologies to produce different solutions, and criteria for acceptable cell performance. It is demonstrated that choices within the four aforementioned areas can be dealt with within the context of a comparative study. The study reveals basic relations between cell formation techniques, the type of input data used, the characteristics of the data, and the resulting performance.