Modeling and Analysis of Flexible Manufacturing Systems: A Simulation Study

Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) are highly modular reconfigurable systems, consisting of a group of processing workstations (such as CNC machining centers), and interconnected by an automated material handling and storage system. The adoption of a Flexible Manufacturing System involves a substantial investment and a high degree of uncertainty for today’s factories. With the aim of combining production flexibility and productivity, the design decisions of a flexible manufacturing system must be based on FMS system performance. The current literature does not, however, provide enough detail to analyze the system performance in a Flexible Manufacturing System with different layout configurations. Models based on discreteevent simulation can be utilized to design production systems such as FMSs. In this study, ProModel software is used to simulate different models and evaluate the system performance in different FMS layouts. Based on the simulation models, we investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of FMS including system performance metrics such as manufacturing lead time (MLT), resource utilization, inventory and queue levels, throughput, bottleneck analysis, and the number of workstations. These decisions of FMS design are critical and need to be investigated in the initial phase with extreme care ensuring that the designed FMS will successfully fulfill the demands of a fluctuating market. Finally, this paper presents a case problem for performance evaluation of an existing manufacturing system. The result shows that the simulation models can effectively help the users to rapidly response to a mix of part styles and changes of demand patterns.