Resource Allocation and Job Dispatching for Unreliable Flexible Flow Shop Manufacturing System

Abstract

Resource allocation, product batching and production scheduling are three different problems in manufacturing systems of different structures such as flexible flow shop manufacturing systems. These problems are usually dealt with independently for a certain objective function related to production efficiency and effectiveness. Handling all of them in an integrated manner is a challenge facing many manufacturing systems in practice and that challenge increases for highly complicated and stochastic systems. Random arrival of products, machine setup time requirements, unexpected machine breakdowns, and multiple conflicting objective functions are some of the common complications in such systems. This research attempts to study the integrated problem under the mentioned complications with various objective functions. The decisions parameters are the batch size, the number of machines at each workstation, and the dispatching policy. Discrete event simulation is used as an optimization tools. The system is modeled using the ARENA software and different scenarios are tested for optimum parameter selection under different conditions.