A computational study of the pseudo-Boolean approach to the p-median problem applied to cell formation

In this study we show by means of computational experiments that a pseudo-Boolean approach leads to a very compact presentation of p-Median problem instances which might be solved to optimality by a general purpose solver like CPLEX, Xpress, etc. Together with p-Median benchmark instances from OR and some other libraries we are able to solve to optimality many benchmark instances from cell formation in group technology which were tackled in the past only by means of different types of heuristics. Finally, we show that this approach is flexible to take into account many other practically motivated constraints in cell formation