Dynamic Cell Formation Problem (DCFP) seeks to cope with variation in part mix and
demands using machine relocation, replication, and removing; whilst from practical point
of view it is too hard to move machines between cells or invest on machine replication. To
cope with this deficiency, this paper addresses Reconfigurable Dynamic Cell Formation
Problem (RDCFP) in which machine modification is conducted instead of their relocation or
replication in order to enhance machine capabilities to process wider range of production
tasks. In this regard, a mixed integer nonlinear mathematical model is proposed, which is
NP-hard. To cope with the proposed model’s intractability, an Imperialist Competitive
Algorithm (ICA) is developed, whose obtained results are compared with those of Genetic
Algorithm’s (GA’s), showing superiority and outperformance of the developed ICA.