A completed tool control system for flexible manufacturing cells

Abstract Cutting tools are essential and costly components in a flexible machining cell (FMC). Tool assignment and tool exchange control are vital managerial decision functions for a group of CNC machines with tool magazines in FMCs, A well-designed tool control system should include the features of scheduling, transportation and tool information monitoring. The Completed Tool Control System (CTCS) as presented in this paper is a computer based tool monitoring system; it consists of an off-line tool scheduling model and a real time tool flow control feature. Fuzzy type part ordering approaches are employed. The results from a batch of jobs showed that the average machine utilisation rate and the job lateness were 78 percents and 13 minutes respectively for a three machines manufacturing cell. These performance are very close to the best results from the LPT and SST dispatching rules.