UNRELIABLE FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING CELL WITH COMMON CAUSE FAILURE

摘要

A mathematical model is developed for unreliable flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) which operates under stochastic environment and produces a variety of parts by utilizing computer controlled machines, a robot and an automated pallet system. FMC is served by the pallet system which delivers blanks into the cell and moves finished parts out of the cell. The robot acts as a mediator between pallet system and the machines i.e. it takes the blanks from the pallet to load them on the machines and places manufactured parts again on the pallet after unloading them from the machines. The operation times, loading/unloading times and material handling times by the pallet are assumed to be exponentially distributed. Using birth death process, the differential difference equations governing the Markov model have been constructed. By using Runge-Kutta method, the probabilities for different system states have been evaluated. Various performance measures viz. machine utilization, robot utilization, pallet handling system utilization, production rate, etc. are established. The model has been compared with that of earlier existing models with reliable/unreliable machines/robot; such models can be treated as special cases of our model. The sensitivity analysis is also performed to explore the effects of different parameters on the various system performance indices, which have been displayed with the help of tables and graphs.