An Approach for Rapid Configuration Synthesis in Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems

Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) represent a new manufacturing system design and operation philosophy that allows a manufacturing system to quickly respond to changing production requirements through reconfiguration of system components. As such, the configuration of an RMS changes several times in the lifetime of the manufacturing system in a bid to match changing production requirements. Central to operating such a system is the issue of synthesizing a configuration that is appropriate for a given production scenario. This work discusses a modeling approach that can be used for rapid synthesis of a required manufacturing configuration. This approach is based on mapping production scenarios onto the operating scenarios. Analytical functions are based on a vector matrix representation of system operating states. Modeling concepts are illustrated through a modular multiparts manufacturing line. The suitability of generated configurations is evaluated through simulated manufacturing system performance measures. An illustrative example shows that the modeling approach can simultaneously identify operating regimes and the required mix of manufacturing modules. Collected simulation results provide evidence for the effectiveness of alternative operating regimes in the manufacturing system. Such evidence can then be used to select appropriate manufacturing configurations.