Title: Evaluation of scheduling rules in flexible manufacturing systems via simulation

Authors: Felix T.S. Chan

Addresses: School of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering, University of South Australia, The Levels, Pooraka, South Australia, 5095, PO Box 1, Ingle Farm, SA 5098, Australia

Abstract: This paper explores the operational problems of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) through simulation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate various combinations of scheduling rules in the FMS system, i.e. given a set of dispatching rules applied at the workstations, the effect of different machine selection rules to the system performance are analysed. Various measures, such as makespan, lead time, machine utilisation, net profit, time delay and inventory level at local input buffer are examined.

Keywords: flexible manufacturing systems; modelling; FMS scheduling; simulation; dispatching rules; machine selection; makespan; lead times; machine utilisation; net profit; time delay; inventory levels.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.1996.036323

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 1996 Vol.11 No.1/2, pp.133 - 144

Published online: 02 Nov 2010 *

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