THROUGHPUT MAXIMIZATION IN FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Maximizing the throughput (or revenue generation) rate has become one of the most important criteria in the design and management of Flexibl e Manufacturing Systems (FMSs). This paper develops dynamic part-alloc ation policies for FMSs having finite storage capacity at each work st ation. Maximizing the throughput rate means that the resulting queuein g network model has a state-dependent arrival process; therefore, prod uct-form solutions do not hold. Consequently, several alternative mode ling approaches are described and formulated for deriving the optimal part-routing policies. One of these optimal policies is based on a new initiated-suspension part-routing strategy. This strategy results in a reduced load on the material handling system while increasing the ex pected throughput (or revenue generation) rates of the manufacturing w ork stations. We also propose several efficient closed-loop heuristic policies that exploit the response structure of the optimal policies. These heuristic policies are of practical significance because they ar e extremely easy to compute and to implement, while the resulting FMS performance is nearly optimal.