The effects of workstation flexibility on the (N×N) job shop problem

摘要

To obtain insight into the potential for improving FMS design and operation, workstation flexibility is examined using shop problems of various sizes. Simulation results show a near-linear relationship, with average performance improvementexplaining 92% of the variation. The results are based on 58,320 simulations, 30 replications of each of the 1,944 combinations of sharing m workstations from 6× 6 through 10×10 job shops. The strong probabilistic relations suggest that analyticalmethods of prediction may exist. The results provide practitioners with several guidelines for process plan development and FMS design and operation.