• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 1994

FMS is two or more computer controlled units interconnected with automated workhandling equipment and supervised by an executive computer having random scheduling capabilities. The complex nature of a FMS, coupled with the need to maximize its performance, means that such a system can be effectly designed only by iterative computer simulation methods. At the operational level, simulation had a reduced role to evaluate the performance of planned FMS under a variety of operating strategies. This is probably due to the fact that few simulation models are able to access the current status data of the system. This study reviews the role of simulation for design/operation of FMS and suggests an interface scheme for incorporating a simulation package with a FMS operational database. This scheme can be used for reducing the performance gap between design and real operation of a FMS.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.31-42
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• 1992

This paper introduces a distuibuted simulation scheme that is useful in the top-down FMS building approach. In the scheme, we first introduce "FMS Shell" that contains basic functions and structure of FMS's. To test a proposed FMS, appropriate features of the proposed FMS are added to the shell, then distributed simulation is performed with the resulting software. This runs like a real system only without hardware devices. An real application case is stated at later part of this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Simulation Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.174-179
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• 2000

Proposed in the paper is a V-FMS (Virtual Flexible Manufacturing System) model to be used as a prototyping tool for FMS design. The proposed V-FMS framework follows an object-oriented modeling (OOM) paradigm and is based on a set of user requirements for FMS prototyping. The V-FMS model consists of four types of object: virtual device, transfer handler, state manager and flow controller. A virtual device model, which corresponds to a static model in OOM, consists of two parts, shell and core, for reusability. A transfer handler corresponds to a functional model of OOM and it stores low level device commands required to perform job flow operations between giving and taking devices. The state manager and the flow controller constitute a dynamic model of OOM. The proposed V-FMS model has been implemented for a couple of linear type FMS-lines

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-39
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• 1991

This paper describes the instructional flexible manufacturing system(FMS) laboratory facility at Virginia Polytechnic Institute(VPI) which is directed at problems and issues in the design, implementation and control of computer integrated manufacturing systems. It begins with a configuration and an operational description of FMS laboratory facilities. Next, relevant curricula in manufacturing systems design and control, which can use the FMS laboratory for instructional purpose, are introduced, A computer simulation can be used as an excellent tool for analysis prior to implementation of FMS as well as an on-going improvement tool. A brief survey of simulation languages is lastly included.

• IE interfaces
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.61-73
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• 1995

As the level of maunfacturing system automation increases, the issues of modeling and simulation of AMS(Automated Manufacturing System) are becoming more important. Proposed in this paper is the JR-Net(Job Resource relation-Net) modeling framework which naturally mimics the process of designing an AMS by FA(Factory Automation) engineers. Its main purpose is to provide a modeling tool which facilitate modeling work of AMS for FA engineers unfamiliar with simulation modeling. The proposed modeling scheme is based on the extensive observation that typical AMSs are built from the set of 'standard' components(or catalog items). As an application of the proposed model, two real examples of FMS('G7'FMS model plant, RPI FMS) are modeled by JR-Net, and in case of FMS model plant, a simulation program development procedure using JR-Net modeling results is explained. Finally, simulation result of FMS model plant is analyzed.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.63-73
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• 2000

Due to the complexity of part flow and limited resources, FMS(Flexible Manufacturing System) develops blocking, starvation and deadlock problems, which reduce its performance. In order to minimize such problems buffers are imposed between workstations of the manufacturing lines. In this paper, we are concerned with finding the optimal buffer allocation with regard to maximizing system throughput in limited total buffer capacity situation of FMS. A dynamic programming algorithm to solve the buffer allocation problem is proposed. Computer simulation using Arena is experimented to show the validation of the proposed algorithm.

• IE interfaces
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.191-202
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• 1996

A variety of approaches on performance evaluation modeling have appeared in the technical literature for flexible manufacturing systems(FMS) which can be evaluated only through computer simulation. This study represents a comparative approach for FMS performance evaluation modeling based on reliability, availability and maintainability, and life cycle cost. The methodology proposed in this research includes the following three-step generative approaches. First, a static model to find the initial system configuration is considered under the assumption that the system availability is given as one (failure and maintenance are not considered), and in second step, a stochastic simulation is proposed to serve as a performance evaluation model for FMS with stochastic failure and repair time. In the last step, we developed a simulation modeling using a simulator, FACTOR/AIM to consider a variety of performance factors and dynamic behavior of FMS. Also the applicability and validity of the proposed approaches has been tested and compared through the results of a sample problem using computer programs and procedures developed in each step.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Simulation Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.93-99
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• 1997

Most of the past studies on FMS scheduling problems may be classified into two classes, namely off-line scheduling and on-line scheduling approach. The off-line scheduling methods are used mostly for FMS planning purposes and may not be useful real time control of FMSs, because it generates solutions only after a relatively long period of time. The on-line scheduling methods are used extensively for dynamic real-time control of FMSs although the performance of on-line scheduling algorithms tends vary dramatically depending on various configurations of FMS. Current study is about finding a better on-line scheduling rules for FMS operations. In this study, we propose a method to create priority functions that can be used in setting relative priorities among jobs or machines in on-line scheduling. The priority functions reflect the configuration of FMS and the user-defined objective functions. The priority functions are generated from diverse dispatching rules which may be considered a special priority functions by themselves, and used to determine the order of processing and transporting parts. Overall system of our work consists of two modules, the Priority Function Evolution Module (PFEM) and the FMS Simulation Module (FMSSM). The PFEM generates new priority functions using input variables from a terminal set and primitive functions from a function set by genetic programming. And the FMSSM evaluates each priority function by a simulation methodology. Based on these evaluated values, the PFEM creates new priority functions by using crossover, mutation operation and probabilistic selection. These processes are iteratively applied until the termination criteria are satisfied. We considered various configurations and objective functions of FMSs in our study, and we seek a workable solution rather than an optimum or near optimum solution in scheduling FMS operations in real time. To verify the viability of our approach, experimental results of our model on real FMS are included.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.48-54
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• 1992

This study discusses the performance evaluation of queueing network methodologies as used for the planning of FMS production systems. The possibility of applications and utilities of queueing network models is investigated for FMS producton plans. Experimental results by queueing network models such as CAN-Q, MVAQ and results by detailed simulation models written in SIMAN are compared and some propositions are presented based on the results of the experiments.

• IE interfaces
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.25-34
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• 1988

Simulation is known to be a valuable tool for design and operation of Flexible Manufacturing Systems(FMSs) under study. However, in order for simulation to be useful, lots of knowledges about the behavior of system to be designed, statistics for output analysis, modeling techniques and a specific simulation language are required by the simulationist. In this paper a way to build simulation support system for nonexperts at simulation will be described and a simulation support system for FMS design and operation developed by the authors will be demonstrated.