Stochastic models for reliable and unreliable flexible manufacturing cells with two machines and two robots

Majid M. Aldaihani and Mehmet Savsar

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2008, vol. 3, issue 5, 610-624

Abstract: Manufacturing systems are usually designed in automated units, called cells, and flexibility is introduced so that a variety of parts can be produced on the same set of equipment. In this paper, we consider a Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) consisting of two machines, each served by a robot arm for loading and unloading purposes, and a common pallet handling system, which moves a batch of mixed parts into and out of the system. Two mathematical models are developed to study and compare operations of two cases of the described FMC. In the first case, both machines are assumed to be reliable all the time while in the second case both machines are assumed to be unreliable and subject to unexpected failures. Machining times, robot loading and unloading times, machine failure and repair times and pallet handling times are assumed to be random variables. Stochastic model of each system turns out to be a Markov chain with a transition matrix, whose size depends on the pallet capacity. Case examples are considered for each FMC, exact numerical solutions are obtained, and the production performance results, such as the production rate and equipment utilisations, are compared.

Keywords: cellular manufacturing; failure analysis; stochastic modelling; FMC productivity; flexible manufacturing cells; robot loading; reliability; machining times; robot unloading; machine failure; repair times; pallet handling times. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=18235 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijisen:v:3:y:2008:i:5:p:610-624

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().