THE STUDY OF OPTIMAL BUFFER ALLOCATION IN FMS USING GENETIC ALGORITHM AND SIMULATION

In this paper, we present a new heuristic algorithm fur buffer allocation in FMS (Flexible Manufacturing System). It is conducted by using a genetic algorithm and simulation. First, we model the system by using a simulation software, \"Arena\". Then, we apply a genetic algorithm to achieve an optimal solution. VBA blocks, which are kinds of add-in functions in Arena, are used to connect Arena with the genetic algorithm. The system being modeled has seven workstations, one loading/unloading station, and three AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicle). Also it contains three products, which each have their own machining order and processing times. We experimented with two kinds of buffer allocation problems with a proposed heuristic algorithm, and we will suggest a simple heuristic approach based on processing times and workloads to validate our proposed algorithm. The first experiment is to find a buffer profile to achieve the maximum throughput using a finite number of buffers. The second experiment is to find the minimum number of buffers to achieve the desired throughput. End of this paper, we compare the result of a proposed algorithm with the result of a simple buffer allocation heuristic based on processing times and workloads. We show that the proposed algorithm increase the throughput by 7.2%.t by 7.2%.