A Simulation Study of FMS Under Routing and Part Mix Flexibility

This paper studies the performance of a flexible manufacturing system under different manufacturing strategies. Manufacturing strategies under consideration are manufacturing flexibility, lot size and scheduling of jobs in the system. The impact of all these strategies is evaluated on the make-span performance of the flexible manufacturing system. The methodologies involved include simulation, Taguchi experimental design and analyzing the results with help of ANOVA. Number of different simulation models is developed with the help of JAVA language. The first model relates to the manufacturing system, which is conventional in nature without any flexibility embedded in the system. The second model takes into partial manufacturing flexibility in the form of routing flexibility. Finally, the third models incorporate much higher level of routing flexibility. All these models are further evaluated at different level of part mix flexibility. Also the scheduling of parts is considered with the objective of minimizing the total make-span time of parts. The results show that considering different manufacturing strategies decisions in a simultaneous manner can significantly improve the performance of the flexible manufacturing systems. © 2014, Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management.