Analytical models to evaluation of flexible manufacturing systems

In the last few decades, manufacturing industry has experienced a deep transformation due to the introduction of new technologies into the production system. Improvement in the productivity and quality aspects show the importance of these technologies in modern industry. The FMS is a good example of this. The complexity of these systems creates the necessity for tools that permit the evaluation of their performance. In this paper, aspects concerned with performance of FMS systems to help a decision-maker are discussed. Special attention is given to the queuing network model to evaluate the design and operation of FMS. Aspects concerned with the implementation of a simple model of FMS system are discussed and some results of the evaluation performance of the system using a queuing network are presented.