Most manufacturing industries today use fixed (linear) process plans, which do not convey adequate manufacturing requirements for both control and planning. The inclusion of pre-planned alternatives in the process plans should enable faster and more efficient decisions, both in manned and automated environs. This paper investigates the use of process plan alternatives at the machine (equipment) level. A model is proposed to represent these process plans, and the efficiencies associated with their execution are investigated. Machine-specific process plan alternatives are studied with no machine or tool failure. An experiment is performed to analyze the performance of such a schema, where the variables considered are the parts to be manufactured, a master production schedule that changes over time, and a dynamic set of cutting tools needed to machine the parts. This work consists of comparing whether it is better to: (1) use a static optimal local process plan, (2) use the current tooling in the machine for a new batch of parts, or (3) to partially set up a machine and use some alternative tools not yet in place at the machine in order to accomplish the manufacture of the part.
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