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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.

Selection of material handling systems (MHS) is an important decision to be taken during the design of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) as it affects the layout of FMS. Many researchers have addressed this issue of MHS selection in the domain of operations management, while a few of them have addressed this issue in the domain of FMS. However, none of them have modelled this problem by incorporating the relationship/dependencies that exist between various factors/attributes/criteria/elements (in short, it will be called “factors” for the sake of simplicity). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the development of the analytic network process (ANP) for the selection of MHS in the design of FMS for a hypothetical case organisation.

As mentioned above, selection of MHS in design of FMS is a complex decision‐making problem, as it is dependent on many factors. Hence, one of the recently developed multi‐attribute decision‐making (MADM) models – namely the ANP — is utilised as it has the capability to incorporate the relationship that exists between and within different factors. To demonstrate the application of ANP, a hypothetical case situation is presented.

The results obtained from ANP revealed that conveyor is a better alternative for the FMS under the given case situation. Furthermore, this study also revealed the computational complexity of the ANP, albeit it is successful implementation of dependency/relationships between the factors within the decision‐making process.

It is believed that this paper will enable the practitioners to appreciate the role of ANP in the strategic decision‐making process, apart from helping them understand how decisions can be made in a structured manner. However, it should be understood that although ANP can provide adequate support to the decisions being made, it requires the experience and judgements of the decision makers to arrive at a particular decision. Originality/value – According to the authors' knowledge, no paper exists in the literature that demonstrates the application of ANP, specifically for selecting a MHS during the design of FMS by considering 35 or more factors. Furthermore, the paper attempts to model this problem by incorporating the relationship/dependency that exist between these factors, which is unique when compared to those papers that have already dealt with this problem.

The generic design environment for a flexible printed‐circuit board assemblies (PCBA) remanufacturing cell contains four interrelated complex design domains. Mechanical design domains are really complex and the use of well‐proven mechanical product design methodologies does not help the designer. Hence, this paper aims to develop a generic systematic design methodology for a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell.

The study investigates the use of conventional mechanical product design techniques for the design of a flexible PCBA rework (remanufacturing) cell. It indicates problems and the weaknesses when conventional product design techniques are used for the development of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). It then provides a new systematic mechanical design methodology for designing a flexible PCBA rework (remanufacturing) cell. The design methodology is intended to be generic in order to apply successfully to any FMS design.

Conventional product design methodology cannot be used directly for the design of a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell. Hence, two design methodologies were developed: the generic FMS mechanical design methodology and a specific FMS design methodology for a PCBA rework cell. The first one was developed based on the tasks of the conventional product design process integrated with new design tools. The generic design methodology was then extended to obtain the second methodology for a PCBA rework cell design. Both of the methodologies were applied to a flexible PCBA rework cell design problem. Both design methodologies eliminated unusable design solutions at the early design stages of the conceptual design process and made the design process easier.

The generic and specific design methodologies provide a better design environment, even for less specialized FMS designers.

The design methodologies may help for the commercialization of a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell that may be used for SM rework and assembly.

In early 1989 the original version of the Reliability Figures of Merit (FM) for the solder attachments of surface mount (SM) assemblies was published. That version of the FM was specifically tailored for telecommunications environments. Misapplications of FMs to use environments, such as military applications and accelerated tests, pointed to a real need for generally applicable FMs. Adequate reliability of SM solder connections can only be assured with a ‘Design for Reliability’ based on solder joint behaviour and the underlying fatigue damage mechanisms. Perceived difficulties with a ‘Design for Reliability’ stem from the very complex and only partially understood nature of the interacting mechanisms underlying thermally induced solder joint fatigue, combined with the highly temperature, time, and stress‐dependent behaviour of some of the materials involved, especially solder. In this paper generic FMs are presented. These are simple design tools, easily applied by users unfamiliar with the underlying complexities of solder fatigue and the reliability assessment results are in Go/No‐go format. The oversimplifications contained in Version 1 of the FMs (originally thought necessary for simple design tools and limiting their applicability) are omitted, making these generic FMs more readily understood.

Today's volatile condition of the market is forcing the manufacturing organizations to adapt the flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) to meet the challenges imposed by international competition, ever‐changing customer demands, rapid delivery to market, and advancement in technology. There are certain enablers, which help in the implementation of FMS or in the transition process from traditional manufacturing system to FMS. The utmost need is to analyze the behavior of these enablers for their effective utilization in the implementation of FMS. This paper aims to address these issues.

This paper presents a methodology based on graph theoretical approach for finding the feasibility of transition to FMS for any industry. A universal feasibility index of transition (FIT) is proposed that evaluates and ranks different organizations according to their capability to be converted into FMS. This FIT value is obtained from a permanent feasibility function obtained from an enablers' digraph of FMS.

The major finding of this paper is that one can judge whether a particular industry is fit for FMS or not by calculating its FIT value. This FIT value can also be utilized in ranking different industries for their possible transition to FMS.

The FIT obtained from a permanent function indicates the strength of enablers and their inter‐relations. More is the value of this index; more will be suitability of that organization for FMS adoption. In this way, managers can judge that a particular organization is suitable or fit for FMS implementation or not, without making the huge investments for such a complex production system and thus, minimize their risks.

Identification, classification of enablers into some important categories, and their analysis is a unique and innovative effort in the area of FMS.

Global competition has made it necessary for many firms to introduce such advanced technologies as Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). However, the extent of such technology applications varies from industry to industry and has met various degrees of success. Reviews the impetus for the introduction of FMS and the conceptual aspects of such systems. Analyses the state of research on FMS, explores problems faced by the firms in implementing FMS and discusses the benefits ensuing from successful implementation of FMS. Includes a relatively extensive bibliography.

The aim of this study is to focus on the perspectives of facility managers in each region and the different challenges impacting collaboration in each geographical context. This research analyzed obstacles to collaboration between facility managers and architectural designers in three international regions.

A multi-method approach was used, allowing the researchers to triangulate data from in-depth interviews and a widely distributed survey instrument. The participants included a large cross-selection of facility management professionals in each of the regions under study. The interview data were parsed to identify recurring themes, while the survey data were analyzed statistically to test specific hypotheses.

Significant differences were found in the culture of the facility management profession in each region. These differences created unique challenges for collaboration, especially in the context of a non-local design team. While the facility management profession was perceived as most established and professional in the UK, rates of collaboration between facility managers and designers were actually much higher in the USA. Collaborations between facility managers and designers were almost non-existent in the Middle East.

While the importance of collaboration between facility managers and designers is increasingly recognized for improving the efficiency of building operations, crucial obstacles continue to limit the scope of this engagement. There has been limited previous research analyzing obstacles to collaboration that are specific to international contexts and non-local design teams. This study helps to fill an important gap in the literature by providing a comparative analysis of collaboration challenges in three international contexts.

Although there is a vast body of literature that attempts to define production flexibility, managers are still unable to measure the flexibility they require. However, managers currently are investing in flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) and planning their manufacturing strategies despite this. Discusses the flexibility and economic viability of FMSs, and concludes that managers do not need to measure the flexibility of an FMS in order to select the correct technical specification. Describes the factors that enable a company to achieve its strategic objectives and suggests that, although increasing flexibility is often quoted as a strategic objective, managers do not need to define or measure flexibility in manufacturing strategy planning. Flexibility just happens to be a convenient word that helps describe the fact that manufacturing facilities must be able to deal with change and uncertainty.

A major factor to the success of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) is their ability to transport work pieces between different workstations. FMS have now become more advanced and material‐handling systems have become progressively more sophisticated, it is not exceptional to have automated steering of tools to workstations as well. Such system design will improve the tool‐handling capability and the system productivity while holding tool cost to a minimum. Tool cost could represent as much as 25 percent of the operating cost. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new colored Petri net (CPN)‐based approach to the design and development of a tool sharing control system that is intended to help use of the proper and minimal number of tools for a manufacturing system.

A new black token timed PN model is first developed, to reduce the complexity of the graphical representation a new CPN model is developed. The new CPN model also allows to find the optimal sequence. The optimal sequence has no effect on the work in process (WIP) but it influences the number of tools used in the system. The main input to the PN model for a manufacturing system is the process plan. Next, all the invariants and total number of possible elementary circuits are determined using the Integrated Net Analyzer (INA) software. Output from the INA software is exported to the Excel spreadsheet. The Excel spreadsheet can be designed to calculate the total number of tokens, processing time, cycle time, etc. of each elementary circuit. Subsequently, the constraints used in Lingo will be created according to critical circuit rules. Finally, linear programming (LP) technique is used to optimize the WIP and tool inventory. Lingo software is used for the LP, the constraints from the Excel sheet will be the input data to the Lingo program, and based on those constraints the Lingo will provide the optimal values for the desired parameters. The output from Lingo will be used to recalculate the cycle time of each elementary circuit in the Excel sheet. The system is then analyzed before and after the implementation of the CPN model.

A new CPN model based on tool‐sharing philosophy for an FMS with N part types and M stations is proposed.

The paper presents a new CPN‐based approach to the design and development of a tool sharing control system, that is, intended to help use of the proper and minimal number of tools for a manufacturing system. The new CPN model also allows to find the optimal sequence. The idea is new and pure and has not been presented before using the methodology adopted in this paper.

In the complex environment of manufacturing system, it is proper to design a production system which meets the market requirements in the most economical and competitive manner. Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is one of the options to meet the uncertainty in demand and high variety of products. This paper aims to review the definition, classification, and measurement of manufacturing flexibility concerned with manufacturing flexibility management.

The selection process consists of the synthesis and critical evaluation of the concepts put forward in the extant literature. As a consequence of this process, three primary flexibility dimensions are identified: volume, variety and machine. Simulation approach is used to study the behavior of FMS under different demand scenarios and levels of flexibility.

Four hypotheses are tested in five different flexibility levels. The following conclusions are obtained from the study. For any flexibility level, as the traffic density (TD) increases, the system utilization increases; as the TD increases, the throughput time increases; and as the number of part type increase, the system utilization decreases. A comparison between five flexibility levels showed that flexibility level 4 is best in terms of system utilization and throughput time. Flexibility level 2 perform second best, better than flexibility level 3 and flexibility level 5 which is not in line with initial assumption. Lastly, from the above results it is concluded that partial flexibility is better as compare to no flexibility and total flexibility.

It is felt that the contribution of the paper lies in demonstrating the usefulness of simulation technique in quantifying the aspects related to FMS. The effect that a specific design variable has on a specific system level flexibility type can change with the level of part processing flexibility present and flexibility trade‐off in manufacturing systems is not inevitable. This would help the planners of FMS to think and design FMS in a holistic manner.