In this article we consider the technological change that has occurred in complex manufacturing systems within the past two decades and the implications it has had on the role of human operators in manufacturing systems control. Our examination ranges from the traditional production line manned by skilled machinists to flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) under supervisory control. On the basis...

Machine loading problem in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) encompasses various types of flexibility aspects pertaining to part selection and operation assignments. The evolution of flexible manufacturing systems offers great potential for increasing flexibility by ensuring both cost-effectiveness and customized manufacturing at the same time. This paper proposes a linear mathematical prog...

this article addresses a single row facility layout problem where the objective is to optimize the arrangement of some rectangular facilities with different dimensions on a line. regarding the np-hard nature of the considered problem, a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm based on simulated annealing has been proposed to obtain a near optimal solution. a number of test problems are randomly generat...

A scheme for the scheduling of Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) has been developed which integrates neural networks, parallel Monte-Carlo simulation, genetic algorithms. and machine learning. Modular neural networks are used to generate a small set of atlractive plans and schedules from a larger list of such plans and schedules. Parallel Monte-Carlo Simulation predicts rhe impact of each on...

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is an integrated system of computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools, each having an automatic tool interchange capability, and all connected by an automated material handling system. One or more computers control most real-time functions. Flexible manufacturing is realized to be an efficient alternative to conventional manufacturing that allows s...

 A Real-time Architectural Specification (RAS) model and its application in the modeling of flexible manufacturing system (FMS) are presented. An FMS is a typical real-time concurrent system composed of a number of computer-controlled machine tools, automated material handling and storage systems that operate as an integrated system under the control of host computer(s). The growing demand for...

The unprecedented challenges such as massive customizations and unstable demands require the manufacturing systems to be more flexible in responding marketplace changes and the system disturbances. In flexible manufacturing system, tool allocation strategy which involves tool planning in the system and scheduling of parts and tools can strongly affect the system efficiency. Considering the basi...

Increasing the performance and flexibility of automated manufacturing systems is a key success factor for today’s production companies. Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) have proven to be particularly suitable in this regard since they support small lot sizes and high numbers of variants at the same time. Among the most important problems of FMS are the huge expenditure of time and the high ...

In the highly competitive market, cooperative multi-agent transaction and negotiation mechanism have become an important research topic. This paper uses multi-agent technology to construct a multi-section flexible manufacturing system (FMS) model, and utilizes simulation to build a manufacturing environment based on JADE framework for multi-agent to combine with dispatching rules, such as short...

An FMS is a typical real-time concurrent system composed of a number of computer-controlled machine tools, automated material handling and storage systems that operate as an integrated system under the control of host computer(s). The growing demand for higher performance and flexibility in these systems and the interlocking factors of concurrency, deadline-driven activities, and real-time deci...