Performance Evaluation of Flexible Manufacturing System Under Different Material Handling Strategies

Abstract

The current market scenario is such that customers demand a variety of good quality products at a very short notice. The need of manufacturing flexibility in flexible manufacturing system producing these parts is a major challenge in effectively integrating material, information and decision flow in the system. The evolving flexible manufacturing environment requires a judicious combination of manufacturing flexibility, material handling strategies, design, planning and operational strategies, etc. In this paper, a series of simulation experiments are conducted to study the impact of routing flexibility on the make-span and average waiting time of parts in queue as performance measures of flexible manufacturing system under different material handling strategies. The results are further analyzed with the help of ANOVA to measure the effect of input variables on flexible manufacturing system performance. It is seen that for assumed conditions there is an optimal routing flexibility level for a given material handling strategy. This work will help system designers in taking judicious decision in setting manufacturing strategies. The results also show the impact of sequencing and dispatching rules, buffer size and number of parts on the performance of flexible manufacturing system.