PRODUCTION FLOW CONTROL FOR A MANUFACTURING SYSTEM WITH FLEXIBLE ROUTINGS

Abstract

We study the dynamic routing problem for a flexible manufacturing system consisting of two unreliable machines and a finite buffer. One product‐type is produced which requires two operations in sequence. The demand rate is assumed to be constant. Each machine is capable of performing both operations. The objective is to trace the demand while keeping the work‐in‐process low and the cycle‐time short. An optimal control formulation is established for the dynamic routing problem. A production flow control algorithm is developed based on a combination of mathematical modeling and heuristics. The control policy is simulated and a comparison with the numerical optimal solution shows that it performs well for the instances under consideration.

Keywords

FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS PRODUCTION FLOW CONTROL DYNAMIC ROUTING

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