Article ID: | iaor200878 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 34 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 274 |
End Page Number: | 282 |
Publication Date: | Jun 2006 |
Journal: | OMEGA |
Authors: | Savsar Mehmet |
Keywords: | quality & reliability, manufacturing industries, simulation: applications |
Flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs) often operate with increasing failure rate due to extensive utilization and wear-outs of equipment. While maintenance plans can eliminate wear-out failures, random failures are still unavoidable. This paper discusses a procedure that combines simulation and analytical models to analyze the effects of corrective, preventive, and opportunistic maintenance policies on productivity of a flexible manufacturing cell. The production output rate of an FMC, which is a function of availability, is determined under different maintenance policies and mean time between failures.