Some insights into Malakooti et al . 'Integrated group technology, cell formation and process planning' approach

Rajagopalan and Irani (Some comments on Malakooti et al. 'Integrated group technology, cell formation, process planning, and production planning with application to the emergency room'. Int. J. Prod. Res., 2006, 44, 2265--2276.) provide a critique of Malakooti et al. (Integrated group technology, cell formation, process and production planning with application to the emergency room. Int. J. Prod. Res., 2004, 42, 1769-1786.) integrated cell/process/capacity formation (ICPCF) approach and suggest an improved method for solving the ICPCF problem. Rajagopalan and Irani ( 2006 ) attempt to solve the emergency room layout problem presented in Malakooti et al. (2004) and claim to have obtained an improved solution from their approach (hybrid flowshop layout). Although there are certain advantages of considering Rajagopalan and Irani's ( 2006 ) approach, we believe that their approach for solving ICPCF problems have significant shortcomings.