A systemic and integrated approach to flexible manufacturing systems design

Abstract

Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) design is a complex problem which is concerned with the selection from a wide variety of available system configurations and control strategy alternatives in the light of several criteria (costs, production, flexibility etc.), many of which are difficult to quantify. Although there is a reasonable number of currently available modelling tools to be applied in FMS design, they are based on an erroneous approach, in which design is considered as a separated, local and myopic activity. Design is divided into isolated and unconnected subproblems whose individual solutions may result in a poor global solution. This paper describes a methodology of analysis and evaluation of FMS design competitive alternatives. It examines the use of an integrated, systemic, global, and user‐centred approach for solving the FMS design problem.

Citation

Borenstein, D., Luiz Becker, J. and Ribas Santos, E. (1999), "A systemic and integrated approach to flexible manufacturing systems design", Integrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 6-14. https://doi.org/10.1108/09576069910370639