Performance analysis of a batch production system with limited flexibility

The concept of limited flexibility, originally applied to production planning, has shown that many benefits of totally flexible systems can be obtained by less flexible systems. This concept is here applied to shop floor control. Limited flexibility is considered as a particular routing flexibility that allows system resources to process some products according to a logic chain, as an intermediate configuration between a totally flexible system (where every resource can process every product) and a non-flexible system (dedicated resources). A simulation study is carried out to measure the system performance such as the lead time and work-in-process for different system configurations, with variable demand, setup times and processing times.