Evaluation of reconfigured manufacturing systems: an AHP framework

The market dynamics are undergoing changes almost continuously and new technologies are emerging which lead to new generation machines. The concept of RMS, although started at the machine level, has now spread to almost all the components of the manufacturing systems. Emerging technologies in the form of machine tool, material handling, tooling, automation etc., guide the reconfiguration exercise. A number of configurations are considered while making the change, guided either by local factors or in rare cases, by optimisation models. The modifications identified are put to use with the hope that everything would be fine and as expected. This approach is risk prone as the system may later encounter different scenarios, which were not considered earlier. Therefore, unless the alternative configurations are evaluated and compared to assess the pros and cons of each alternative under different situations, one may not reap the potential benefit of the concept like RMS. The study reported in this paper attempts to extend help in this direction.