This research concentrates on the impact of tool request selection and
tool dispatching rules in a tool sharing environment. Request selecti
on rules are invoked when more than one request for a tool are pending
. Tool selection rules, on the other hand, come into play when there a
re more than one copy of tools in the system. A ''look ahead'' method
has been used to determine the requirement of tools. Various rules for
tool sharing have been studied with makespan and tool transporter uti
lization as performance measures. Simulation was used for modeling the
system. The impact of factors such as product mix and duplication of
tools have also been addressed. Design of experiments techniques were
used to analyze simulation outputs. The analysis of results indicated
that the tool selection rules significantly affect the performance of
the tool transporter while the request selection rules do not affect t
he system. Request selection rules affect the makespan of the system w
hen the number of tool copies is one. Factors such as product mix and
duplication of tools also affect the system.