Impact of manufacturing flexibility on FMS performance: a simulation study

Flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) can be utilised to deal with dynamic and uncertain production conditions. FMS is equipped with several computer-controlled machines interconnected by automated material handling systems to provide high productivity and manufacturing flexibility. In this paper, we present a simulation study to evaluate the effects of various system parameters, such as machine flexibility, routing flexibility and part population inside the system. More than 100 simulation experiments were carried out using simulation package Arena professional version 11.0. It is found that significant improvement in makespan performance of an FMS can be achieved by the optimum implementation of machine flexibility, routing flexibility and part population inside the system. This simulation study may be very useful in managing and controlling the shop floor to give enhanced quality and better productivity.

[1]  Mr.Briance Mascarenhas,et al.  Planning for flexibility , 1981 .

[2]  Subhash Wadhwa,et al.  Impact of Routing Flexibility on the Performance of an FMS—A Simulation Study , 1997 .

[3]  Samir Barman.  Simple priority rule combinations: An approach to improve both flow time and tardiness , 1997 .

[4]  L. N. Van Wassenhove,et al.  Analysis of Scheduling Rules for an FMS , 1990 .

[5]  Boris Shnits.  Methods for activating the decision-making process that is used for controlling flexible manufacturing systems , 2010 .

[6]  Matthias Walter,et al.  Evaluating volume flexibility instruments by design-of-experiments methods , 2011 .

[7]  R. Venkata Rao,et al.  Flexible Manufacturing System selection using an improved compromise ranking method , 2009 .

[8]  Kripa Shanker,et al.  A loading and dispatching problem in a random flexible manufacturing system , 1985 .

[9]  Felix T. S. Chan,et al.  The effects of routing flexibility on a flexible manufacturing system , 2001, Int. J. Comput. Integr. Manuf..

[10]  Erol Taymaz,et al.  Types of flexibility in a single-machine production system , 1989 .

[11]  Erinç Albey,et al.  A parametric fuzzy logic approach to dynamic part routing under full routing flexibility , 2008, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[12]  Yash P. Gupta,et al.  Flexibility of manufacturing systems: Concepts and measurements , 1989 .

[13]  D. Upton.  The Management of Manufacturing Flexibility , 1994 .

[14]  Andrea Rossi,et al.  Flexible job-shop scheduling with routing flexibility and separable setup times using ant colony optimisation method , 2007 .

[15]  Faizul Huq,et al.  The impact of machine flexibility on the performance of flexible manufacturing systems , 2001 .

[16]  B. Carlsson.  Flexibility and the theory of the firm , 1989 .

[17]  Felix T.S. Chan,et al.  Effects of Dispatching and Routeing Decisions on the Performance of a Flexible Manufacturing System , 2003 .

[18]  Desheng Dash Wu,et al.  A generic approach to measuring the machine flexibility of manufacturing systems , 2008, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[19]  Subhash Wadhwa,et al.  Simulation Modeling of Control Strategies in Flexible Manufacturing System , 2009 .

[20]  Hirofumi Matsuo,et al.  A bottleneck-based beam search for job scheduling in a flexible manufacturing system , 1989 .

[21]  Koji Takahashi,et al.  Resource breakdown modelling and performance maximisation of a multiple product flexible manufacturing system , 2008 .

[22]  Kathryn E. Stecke,et al.  Classification of flexible manufacturing systems , 2011 .

[23]  Yves Ducq,et al.  Performance Analysis of a Flexible Manufacturing System under Planning and Control Strategies , 2008 .

[24]  Majid M. Aldaihani,et al.  Stochastic models for reliable and unreliable flexible manufacturing cells with two machines and two robots , 2008 .

[25]  Sanchoy K. Das,et al.  Investigations into the impact of flexibility on manufacturing performance , 1993 .

[26]  Subhash Wadhwa,et al.  Flexibility: an emerging meta-competence for managing high technology , 2000, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[27]  Subhash Wadhwa,et al.  The effect of routing flexibility on a flexible system of integrated manufacturing , 2010 .

[28]  Miryam Barad,et al.  Flexibility in logistic systems—modeling and performance evaluation , 2003 .

[29]  Tolga Bektaş,et al.  Cellular manufacturing systems design with routing flexibility, machine procurement, production planning and dynamic system reconfiguration , 2009 .

[30]  M. I. M. Wahab.  Measuring machine and product mix flexibilities of a manufacturing system , 2005 .

[31]  K. S. Rao,et al.  Flexibility-enabled lead-time reduction in flexible systems , 2005 .

[32]  Yeong-Dae Kim,et al.  Simulation-based real-time scheduling in a flexible manufacturing system , 1993 .

[33]  Durk-Jouke van der Zee,et al.  Virtual cellular manufacturing: Configuring routing flexibility , 2008 .

[34]  M. Mandelbaum,et al.  Examples of Measurement of Flexibility and Adaptivity in Manufacturing Systems , 1989 .

[35]  Hitoshi Tsubone,et al.  A Comparison Between Machine Flexibility and Routing Flexibility , 1999 .