AN OPTIMAL TOOL SELECTION PROCEDURE FOR THE INITIAL DESIGN PHASE OF A FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM

An important preliminary design issue or long term planning consideration for flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) is the optimal tool selection. The FMS designer has to determine the optimal number of tools of each tool type required for an efficient operation of the manufacturing system over a planning horizon. In this paper a two-level hierarchical decision scheme for the problem is described. At a first level an appropriate long-term operations assignment policy to machines is specified. At the second level the optimal tooling decision is made. Theoretical results supporting the validity of such a hierarchical procedure are presented.