A graph-theoretic approach to evaluate the intensity of barriers in the implementation of FMSs

Manufacturing organisations adopt Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) to meet the challenges imposed by today's volatile market standards. But the implementation of FMSs is not an easy job. Various barriers are experienced in real-life cases during its implementation. It is very much necessary to analyse the nature and impact of these barriers so that production managers can think of some strategies to overcome these barriers. In the present work, a Graph-Theoretic Approach (GTA) has been utilised to find the intensity of these barriers through an index which is calculated through a permanent function obtained from the digraph of FMS barriers.