A management design approach to a simple flexible assembly system

This paper considers the simple flexible assembly system (simple FAS) consisting of Generalized CSPSs, and presents a strategic management design approach to stochastic system balancing problems of simple FAS. First, the simple FAS is briefly outlined. Next, the 2-stage design procedure is presented to both types of the existing and installation problems of production facilities. Third, an optimal design example is shown and discussed numerically. Finally, the production matrix tables of both types are given under the cycle time, d, and the number of Generalized CSPSs, K, and a strategic relation of economic traffic (d, K) and leadtime is discussed. From these discussions, it is shown that the proposed approach is very useful. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.