Article ID: | iaor2003211 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 40 |
Issue: | 11 |
Start Page Number: | 2461 |
End Page Number: | 2481 |
Publication Date: | Jan 2002 |
Journal: | International Journal of Production Research |
Authors: | He David, Babayan Astghik |
Keywords: | agile manufacturing |
Production of customized products to respond to changing markets in a short time and at a low cost for agile manufacturing can be implemented with delayed product differentiation in a manufacturing system. The successful implementation of delayed product differentiation lies in efficient scheduling of the manufacturing system. Scheduling problems in implementing delayed product differentiation in a general flexible manufacturing system are defined, formulated and solved here. The manufacturing system consists of two stages: machining and assembly. At the machining stage, a single machine is used to produce standard component parts for assembly products. These parts are then assembled at the assembly stage by multiple identical assembly stations to form customized products. The products to be produced in the system are characterized by their assembly sequences represented by digraphs. The scheduling problem is to determine the sequence of products to be produced in the system so that the maximum completion time (makespan) is minimized for any given number of assembly stations at the assembly stage. Based on the representation of assembly sequence of the products, three production modes are defined: production of a single product with a simple assembly sequence; production of a single product with a complex assembly sequence; and production of