.

Flexible Manufacturing Systems

Classification of manufacturing systems

Based on manufacturing transformation process: 1. Continuous type: Chemical, oil, food industries; 2. Discrete type: Electronics, computer and goods industries. 1). Assembly; 2). Non-assembly.
Based on volume of production: 1. Mass manufacturing systems; 2. Batch manufacturing systems.

Volume of production
Mass Batch Job shop

Transfer line

Production line

FMS

FAS

1. Automation and production volume decrease; 2. The flexibility of the system increases.

The role of Market

Past: Customer

Buffer

Factory

Now:

Customer

Factory Product Order

Market changes are the driving force that manufacturing is moving away from mass manufacturing systems to low volume and high flexible systems.

1. The marketplace has changed dramatically in the last twenty or so years; 2. Customers have become more discerning, requesting a wide variety of highly quality product at competitive price; 3. The manufacturer tries to interact more closely with the customer; 4. The life period of product becomes relatively short in some setting.

Batch manufacturing systems

Batch manufacturing systems are a very important sector within the entire manufacturing industry, and will become

more and more important in the future.

Batch manufacturing systems contains two crucial types:

1. Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS):

1). Flexible manufacturing cell (FMC); 2). FMS; 3). Flexible manufacturing line (FML). 2. Flexible assemble systems (FAS).

A sample of flexible manufacturing systems

Parts loading and unloading Machines

Material handling system

A sample of flexible manufacturing cell: it can be considered as a small scale FMS

Machines

Material handling system

Flexible manufacturing systems

Material handling system Tool delivery system

1. Computer-controlled configuration of semi-independent work-stations; 2. Material handling system designed to efficiently manufacture several types of parts at low to medium volume.

Flexible manufacturing systems

Volume High Medium Low

FML FMS FMC

Low Medium High Flexibility

1. Reduced set-up time; 2. Reduced production cycle times; 3. Reduced WIP storage 4. Increased machine utilization; 5. Increased flexibility.

Flexible assembly systems

Carousel

FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) is a manufacturing philosophy based on the concept of effectively controlling material flow through a network of versatile production stations using an efficient and versatile material handling and storage systems Each work station in an FMS is capable of processing a variety of part types with relatively small change over times.

FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

One of the earliest systems employing FMS concepts was developed in 1965 in the USA which had eight NC machines linked by a computer controlled roller conveyor system.

The first full-fledged FMS was installed in UK in 1968. It was called `System 24' because it was intended to be operated three shifts a day with one shift attended by operators.
By 1982 it was estimated that there were 75 FMS in operation worldwide with about 50 installations in Japan.

What Is A Flexible Manufacturing System?

Flexible Manufacturing System:
- A system that consists of numerous programmable machine tools connected by an automated material handling system (2)

Automated Material Handling

Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS)
Conveyors

 shorter lead times, meeting demand fluctuations, handling volume and variety, reduction in space and people and obtaining better control due to automation. The main disadvantage is that the initial installation cost and operational costs are high and it is necessary to have enough volumes to justify the use of FMS.

 classified into
Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC), Flexible manufacturing System (FMS) and Flexible manufacturing Line (FML).
FMCs have high flexibility but handle less volume while FML have less flexibility but can handle very large volumes.

Types of flexibility
Operation flexibility is the ability to perform more than one operation on a given part type. Part flexibility is the ability to perform operations on more than one part at a time. Change over flexibility is the ability to change over from one part to another in negligible change over times, in parallel when an operation is being performed on another piece.

Routing flexibility means that a particular part can be delivered to any one of the number of alternative stations
Path flexibility results from the existence of more than one possible path from a specified origin to a specified destination.

Production planning problems (Stecke)

Part Selection problem to choose the sub set of parts that are to be made in the FMs. Machine grouping problem to group machines such that any machine in a group can handle all jobs that other machines in the group can process. Production ratio problem to decide the ratios in which the parts chosen in 1 can be made. Resource allocation problem to allocate limited number of pallets and fixtures to the selected part types. Allocate operations and tools to machine to meet stated objectives subject to technological constraints.

Part Selection problem

Choose set of parts that maximizes profit subject to time availability constraints Binary Knapsack problem Consider 4 parts that can be made in an FMS. The profits are 12, 10, 8 and 9 and the times required are 20, 16, 15 and 12 respectively. The available time is 45. Find the parts that are made in the FMS?

 The ratios of Cj/tj are 0.6, 0.625, 0.533 and 0.75. The rearranged order (using variable y), we have the problem Maximize 9Y1 + 10Y2 + 12Y3 + 8Y4 Subject to 12Y1 + 16Y2 + 20Y3 + 15Y4 45; Yj = 0,1 The optimum solution to this problem is Y1 = Y2 = Y4 = 1 with Z = 27. Parts 1, 3 and 4 are made using the FMS.

Heuristic
A heuristic solution after rearranging the variable would be Y1 = Y2 = 1with Z = 21. We observe that 17 time units are free and we can insert Y4 = 1 to get the same solution.

Machine Loading
Balance load subject to Each job to one machine Tool slot requirement and capacity Binary integer programming

Example
1 M1 1 M2 2 sj 2 2 4 6 3 3 7 5 3 4 8 7 4 5 6 8 2 6 7 8 2 7 9 7 4 Ti 10 10

The optimum solution to the problem is X11 = X22= X32 = X41 = X51 = X61 = X72 = 1 with Z = 22. This means that jobs {1, 4, 5, 6} are assigned to M1 and jobs {2, 3, 7} are assigned to M2. The slot requirements are 10 and 9 respectively. The loads are 22 and 18 respectively.

 Allocating the job to the machine with the least processing times we assign jobs 1, 2, 5, 6 to M1 and jobs 3, 4, 7 to M2. The total processing times are 18 and 19 respectively. The tool slots required are 9 and 11. The tool slot constraint is violated. Interchanging 2 and 7 we allot 1, 5, 6, 7, to M1 with time = 23 and 2, 3, 4 to M2 with time = 18. The tool slots required are 10 and 10.

Tool slot saving

Jobs 3 and 7 saving = 2 Jobs 1 and 3 saving = 1 Jobs 6 and 7 saving = 2 Jobs 4 and 5 saving = 1

Allocating the job to the machine with the least processing times we assign jobs 1, 2, 5, 6 to M1 and jobs 3, 4, 7 to M2. The total processing times are 18 and 19 respectively. The tool slots required are 9 and 9 (there is a saving of 2 slots if we assign jobs 3 and 7 to the same machine). The present solution is feasible.

 Let us solve the problem for T = 8 in each machine. The initial allocation is {1, 2, 5, 6} and {3, 4, 7}. The tool slot requirements are 9 and 9. Both are infeasible. We consider M1 and move job 1 to M2. The job allocations are {2, 5, 6} and {1, 3, 4, 7} with tool slots required = 7 and 10.

M2 is infeasible with respect to tool slots. We move job 5 to M1 to get the allocation {2, 4, 5, 6} and {1, 3, 7} with required tool slots = 10 and 6 respectively. Now M1 is infeasible. We move job 6 to M2 to get the allocation {2, 4, 5} and {1, 3, 6, 7} with tool slots required = 8 and 8. We have a feasible solution. The load on the two machines is 18 and 23 respectively.

 The solution obtained in Illustration 12.3 for T = 8 has jobs 2, 4, 5 assigned to M1 and jobs 1, 3, 6, 7assigned to M2. This is infeasible for T = 6. It is also obvious that we would require more than 1 batch on each M1 and M2 to complete the jobs allocated to the machines. We could use the same allocation and use the tool saving advantage as well as due dates (if available) to schedule the jobs on the machines. Alternately we could ignore the tool constraint and assign jobs to machines to balance workload. Assigning the jobs to the machine with minimum processing times gives us {1,2, 5, 6} and {3, 4, 7} with load = 18 and 19. We can solve the loading and scheduling problem individually on the machines.

Lecture 39

Flexible Manufacturing Systems

Batching and sequencing

Consider three jobs (J1 to J3) with processing times 5, 7 and 7 to be produced in an FMS with a single machine. The machine has 6 tool slots and the tool slot requirements are 3, 4 and 4. The due dates for the jobs are 12, 18 and 10 respectively. Also consider the situation where we can have a tool slot if jobs 1 and 2 are assigned together. Also consider that changeover time between batches is 3 units? if we ignore the tool requirement constraint and the batching constraint, the optimum solution that minimizes total tardiness is J3-J1-J2. The completion times are 7, 12, 19 and the total tardiness is 1. If we ignore the tool saving constraint and consider 6 tool slots, we require three batches one each for J3, J1 and J2. The actual completion times including the batch changeover times are 7, 15, 25. The due dates are 10, 12 and 18 and the total tardiness is 10.

 If we include the tool saving constraint for the sequence J3-J1-J2, we will have 2 batches with J3 in the first batch and J1-J2 in the second batch (due to tool savings). The completion times are 7, 15, 22. The total tardiness is 7.

Loading considering different tools for each machine

Here we assume that the number of tools required can be different for different machines. We also assume that the processing times are different for different machines. We formulate the problem for n jobs and 2 machines (M1 and M2). Let the tool slots available be Tj. Let there be Aj tools available for machine j (Aj Tj). Each job i requires Sij tools on machine j. These are specific, for example, job 1 would require tool S11 and tool S21 on machine 1 and would require tool S32 on machine M2. We would allocate jobs to machines such that the sum of processing times is minimized. Let Xk = 1 if tool k is chosen for use in M1 and let Yk = 1 if tool k is chosen for use in M2. Let Zij = 1 if job i is allotted to machine j.

The objective is to Minimize

p Z
Subject to

i 1 j 1

ij

ij

Z
j 1
K

ij

X
k 1

Tk

Y
k 1

Tk

Ziij Sij, ; Zij, Xk, Yk = 0,1.

 Consider 7 jobs that are to be processed. Two machines, each with 4 slots is available. A job is to be assigned to only one machine. The data is given in table 12.4
1 1 2 A1 A2 B1 B3 2 4 6 A2 B4 3 7 5 A1 A3 B2 B5 4 8 7 A2 A4 B3 B4 5 6 8 A3 A4 A5 B2 B3 6 7 8 A4 A5 B4 7 Ti 9 4 7 4 A3 A5 B1 B2

M1 M2

 The binary Integer programming formulation has 24 binary variables and 35 constraints. The optimum solution is X2 = X3 = X4 = X5 = 1; Y1 = Y2 = Y3 = Y5 = 1; Z12 = Z21 = Z32 = Z41 = Z51 = Z61 = Z72 = 1 with objective value = 39. Tools A2, A3, A4 and A5 are chosen for M1 and jobs 2, 4, 5, and 6 are allotted to M1. Tools B1, B2, B3 and B5 are chosen for M2 and jobs 1, 3 and 7 are allotted to M2. The loads are 25 and 14 adding to a total of 39. Based on minimum processing time we allot J1 to M1. M1 is assigned tools A1 and A2. J2 goes to M1 because it has all the tools required. Based on minimum processing time J3 goes to M2. M2 has tools B2 and B5. J5 is allotted to M2 and tool B3 is added to M2. J4 also goes to M2 and tool B4 is added to M2. J6 goes to M2 because the tools are already available. Job 7 goes to m1 and tools A3 and A5 are added. Jobs {1, 2, 7} and tools A1, A2, A3, A5 go to M1. The total processing time is 14. Jobs {3, 4, 5, 6} and tools B2, B3, B4, B5 go to M2. The total processing time is 26.

Sequencing jobs on machines

Four jobs have to be processed on M2. The processing times are 6, 5, 7 and 8. The due dates are 10, 25, 15 and 20. Sequence the jobs to minimize flow time, tardiness and number of tardy jobs? SPT sequence minimizes flow time. The sequence is J2-J1J3-J4. The completion times are 5, 11, 18, 26. The minimum total flow time possible is 60. The mean flow time is 15. This sequence has 3 tardy jobs and the total tardiness is 10. The EDD sequence is J1-J3-j4-J2. The completion times are 6, 13, 21 and 26. The mean flow time is 66/4 = 16.5. This sequence has 2 tardy jobs with total tardiness = 2.