Machine utilizations achieved using balanced FMS production ratios in a simulated setting

Stecke has developed mathematical programming approaches for determining, from a set of part type requirements, the production ratios (part types to be produced next, and their proportions) which maximize overall machine utilizations by balancing machine workloads in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). These mathematical programming (MP) approaches are aggregate in the sense that they do not take into account such things as contention for transportation resources, travel time for work-in-process, contention for machines, finite buffer space, and dispatching rules. In the current study, the sensitivity of machine utilizations to these aggregations is investigated through simulation modeling. For the situation examined, it is found that achieved machine utilizations are a strong function of some of the factors ignored in the MP methodology, ranging from 9.1% to 22.9% less than those theoretically attainable under the mathematical programming assumptions. The 9.1% degradation results from modeling with nonzero work-in-process travel times (i.e. 2 minutes per transfer) and using only central work-in-process buffers. Resource levels (e.g. the number of automated guided vehicles; the amount of work-in-process; the number of slack buffers) needed to limit the degradation to 9.1% correspond to FMS operating conditions which are feasible in practice.