Article ID: | iaor20061222 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 49 |
Issue: | 4 |
Start Page Number: | 600 |
End Page Number: | 610 |
Publication Date: | Dec 2005 |
Journal: | Computers & Industrial Engineering |
Authors: | Savsar Mehmet, Aldaihani Majid M. |
This paper presents a stochastic model to determine the performance of a flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) under variable operational conditions, including random machining times, random loading and unloading times, and random pallet transfer times. The FMC under study consists of two machines, pallet handling system, and a loading/unloading robot. After delivering the blanks by the pallet to the cell, the robot loads the first machine followed by the second. Unloading of a part starts with the machine that finishes its part first, followed by the next machine. When the machining of all parts on the pallet is completed, the handling system moves the pallet with finished parts out and brings in a new pallet with blanks. A model with these characteristics turns out to be a Markov chain with a transition matrix of size 5