Abstract
Problems related to the flow management of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) are here formulated in terms of combinatorial optimization. We consider a system consisting of several multitool automated machines, each one equipped with a possibly different tool set and linked to each other by a transportation system for part moving. The system operates with a given production mix.
The focused flow-management problem is that of finding the part routings allowing for an optimal machine workload balancing. The problem is formulated in terms of a particular capacity assignment problem.
With the proposed approach, a balanced solution can be achieved by routing parts on a limited number of different paths. Such a balancing routing can be found in polynomial time. We also give polynomial-time and-space algorithms for choosing, among all workload-balancing routings, the ones that minimize the global amount of part transfer among all machines.
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Arbib, C., Lucertini, M. & Nicolò, F. Workload balance and part-transfer minimization in flexible manufacturing systems. Int J Flex Manuf Syst 3, 5–25 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00167523
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00167523