• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.357-366
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• 2012

To schedule a Reconfigurable Manufacturing Cell (RMC), reconfiguration and setting decisions should be made first. Those decisions, together with characteristics of production orders, affect attainable performance of a system. So an integrative approach is required considering all decisions and characteristics rather than dealing with each of them separately. Pallet-fixture allocation, as a decision problem in setting, which determines the number of pallets to be equipped with each fixture type to produce different types of products, has rarely been investigated. In this study, several pallet-fixture allocation rules are proposed including both simple and novel ones. Then system performance is investigated through various combinations of setting and scheduling decisions (rules) for given system configurations and production orders, via simulation. The result shows that one of proposed pallet-fixture allocation rules which considers both configuration and order characteristic outperforms the others, justifying the necessity of an integrative approach in the RMC operation.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.75-86
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• 1998

We address the problem of determining the optimal processing times and pallet/fixture allocation in Flexible Manufacturing systems in order to minimize tool cost while meeting throughput targets of multiple part types. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear program superimposed on a closed queueing network of the FMSs under consideration. A numerical example reveals the potential of our approach for significant cost saving. We argue that our model can be Integrated Into the process planning system of an FMS to generate efficient process plans quickly.