TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of routeing and machine flexibility on the performance of manufacturing systems
AU - Benjaafar, Saifallah
AU - Ramakrishnan, Rajesh
AU - Talavage, Joseph
N1 - Funding Information:
The research of the authors was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant DDM-9309631.
PY - 1995
Y1 - 1995
N2 - The effect of routeing and machine flexibility on the performance of manufacturing systems is investigated. The results obtained indicate that in a variable environment, a positive correlation between flexibility and several measures of performance may indeed exist. These measures include part mean flow time and waiting time, flow time and waiting time variance, and mean and variance of work-in-process inventory. The significance of the effect of routeing and machine flexibility is shown to increase with increases in either the degree of variability in the system or in the level of system loading. In addition, the relationship between flexibility and performance is found to be of the diminishing return type. That is, most of the performance improvements are achieved at relatively low levels of flexibility. It is also shown that the effect of part flow control policies (e.g. dispatching rules) diminishes with increases in routeing and machine flexibility. The benefits of flexibility are found, however, to be limited by certain conditions on part processing variety.
AB - The effect of routeing and machine flexibility on the performance of manufacturing systems is investigated. The results obtained indicate that in a variable environment, a positive correlation between flexibility and several measures of performance may indeed exist. These measures include part mean flow time and waiting time, flow time and waiting time variance, and mean and variance of work-in-process inventory. The significance of the effect of routeing and machine flexibility is shown to increase with increases in either the degree of variability in the system or in the level of system loading. In addition, the relationship between flexibility and performance is found to be of the diminishing return type. That is, most of the performance improvements are achieved at relatively low levels of flexibility. It is also shown that the effect of part flow control policies (e.g. dispatching rules) diminishes with increases in routeing and machine flexibility. The benefits of flexibility are found, however, to be limited by certain conditions on part processing variety.
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U2 - 10.1080/09511929508944653
DO - 10.1080/09511929508944653
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001491488
SN - 0951-192X
VL - 8
SP - 265
EP - 276
JO - International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing
JF - International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing
IS - 4
ER -
