IMPACT OF ROUTING FLEXIBILITY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF AN FMS - A SIMULATION STUDY

The evolving manufacturing environment is characterized by a drive tow ard increasing flexibility. One possible manifestation of flexibility within an FMS is in the form of routing flexibility. Providing this ty pically is an expensive proposition, and system designers therefore ai m to provide only the required levels commensurate with a given set of operating conditions. This paper presents a framework based on a Tagu chi experimental design for studying the nature of the impact of varyi ng levels of routing flexibility on the performance of an FMS. Simulat ion results indicate that increases in routing Flexibility, when made available at the cost of an associated penalty on operation processing time, is not always beneficial. There is an optimal flexibility level , beyond which system performance deteriorates, as judged by the makes pan measure of performance. It is suggested that the proposed methodol ogy can be used in practice for not only setting priorities on specifi c design and control factors but also For highlighting likely factor l evel combinations that could yield near-optimal shop performance.