A Study on Tool Allocation Method Considering Load Balancing and Optimization of Transportation Based on Mathematical Programming

Abstract

A new tool allocation method is proposed in this paper to consider both the load balancing and optimization of a transportation based on a mathematical problem. The proposed tool allocation method consists of two steps. In the first step, the individual tools are divided into tool sets based on 0-1 programming problem in order to balance a total machining time by using the individual tool sets and reducing a total number of transportation processes. In the second step, the individual tool sets are allocated to the Machining Centers (MCs) based on a quadratic assignment problem in order to minimize transportation total distances of jobs.