BATCH SIZES AND LEAD-TIME PERFORMANCE IN FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Production lead-time performance in flexible manufacturing systems is influenced by several factors which include: machine groupings, demand rates, machine processing rates, product batching, material handling system capacity, and so on. Hence, control of lead-time performance ca n be affected through the manipulation of one or more of these variabl es. In this article, we investigate the potential of batch sizing as a control variable for lead-time performance through the use of a queue ing network model. We establish a functional relationship between the two variables, and incorporate the relationship in an optimization mod el to determine the optimal batch size(s) which minimizes the sum of a nnual cork-in-process inventory and final inventory costs. The nonline ar batch sizing problem which results is solved by discrete optimizati on via marginal analysis. Results show that batch sizing can be a chea p and effective variable for controlling flexible manufacturing system throughput.