Abstract
Part type selection and machine loading are two major problems in the production planning of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The two problems are viewed as selecting subsets from the jobs of part types in a planning horizon and allocating jobs of the subsets among machines. In this paper, in order to develop a practical and efficient approach to solving FMS production planning problems, a heuristic algorithm is suggested that develops heuristic rules with the objective of minimisation of the number of tool changes and minimisation of the imbalance in per machine. To compare the proposed algorithm, a series of computational experiments is done on randomly generated test problems and the results show that the developed algorithm is very simple and efficient.
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Abbreviations
- i :
-
part type number, 1≤i≤N
- j :
-
machine number, 1≤j≤J
- k :
-
operation number, 1≤k≤N i
- B :
-
total number of batches in planning horizon
- M :
-
total number of slots on all machines
- TK j :
-
the number of tool slots on tool magazine of machine j
- MA :
-
total number of machines for processing jobs in planning horizon
- W :
-
total number of processing operations on different (non-identical) machines
- Y :
-
total number of processing operations on identical machines
- PG :
-
the number of shared part type assigned to different batches
- SG b :
-
the number of shared part type assigned to batch b
- T i :
-
the set of tools for processing part type i
- TB b :
-
the set of tools for processing parts of batch b
- TN h :
-
the set of appending tools that part type h is assigned to basic batches
- TM bj :
-
the set of tools assigned to machine j in processing parts of batch b
- n(T i ):
-
the required number of tools to processing part type i
- n(TN h ):
-
the number of appending tools that part type h is assigned to basic batches
- n(TM bj ):
-
the number of tools of assigned to machine j in processing parts of batch b
- J 0 :
-
the full set of part types that will be processed in the planning horizon
- A b :
-
the set of part types that are candidates for assignment to batch b
- J n :
-
the set of part types that are assigned to batch n
- O b :
-
the set of operations that are assigned to batch b
- OM bj :
-
the set of operations that are assigned to machine j for part types of batch b
- F j :
-
the processing time assigned to machine j
- H b :
-
the average processing time of all operations that are excluded the shared part type on all machines for batch b
- Sb i :
-
the number of part type i in batch b
- P bik :
-
the processing time for operation k on machine of part type i
- R j :
-
the remaining time on machine j
- NTM j :
-
the required remaining essential time on machine j
- ntm ijk :
-
the required essential time for operation k on machine j of job i
- NRM ijk :
-
[remaining processing time on machine j—optional time required on machine j for operation k of job i]/[remaining needed time of machine j]
- UB b :
-
the system unbalance in batch b
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the ‘863’ Project Foundation of China under grant number 2001AA412250 and by Shanghai Science and Technology development Project under grant number 02FK04. The authors express sincere appreciation to Miss Brittman from the University of Michigan who assisted with editing the paper.
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Binghai, Z., Lifeng, X. & Yongshang, C. A heuristic algorithm to batching and loading problems in a flexible manufacturing system. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 23, 903–908 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-003-1717-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-003-1717-8