Investigation of the importance of machine sequence flexibility on a flexible manufacturing system performance

Abstract

Machine sequence flexibility is defined as the combination of operation and routing flexibilities in this study. Its importance in performance level of a flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) is investigated in this study. Studies related with the effects of various flexibility types such as routing flexibility are available in the literature. For example, studies related with routing flexibility try to measure the effects of routing flexibility on the performance levels in operation of manufacturing systems under their own manufacturing environments. Similarly, this study also aims to present a performance measurement model based on Taguchi parameter design principles for investigating the effects of different levels of machine sequence flexibility on the performance of a flexible manufacturing cell and obtaining an optimum and robust performance level. Two main performance metrics namely, manufacturing lead time (MLT) and surface roughness (SR) are considered for the optimization of the FMC performance. Robot speed, cutting tool type and work-part material type are taken as the three other input factors to show importance of machine sequence flexibility with respect to the other inputs. The study presented in this paper points that machine sequence flexibility is the most effective input factor among the four input factors in the performance of the FMC.