Shop floor control and tool loading policies in flexible manufacturing systems

The authors develop a classification scheme and taxonomy of operating decisions in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The taxonomy is used to identify a promising research area termed General FMSs (GFMS), where very little academic work has been reported to date in the prior literature. A decision framework for the development of tool loading and shop floor control policies in GFMS is also presented, and used to highlight specific future research directions. Strategic justification for developing operating policies for the GFMS classification is also provided.