Robust design of asynchronous flexible assembly systems

In this paper, we propose a new analytical approach for designing asynchronous flexible assembly systems (AFAS). Our approach is based on the robust design methodology, which aims at studying and reducing the effect of uncontrollable factors in the process of identifying the most appropriate configuration for an AFAS. The traditional approach in designing AFAS is to pre-fix a set of the design parameters, e.g. workstation jam rates and jam clear times. We attempt to remedy this shortcoming of the prevailing studies by developing an AFAS design optimization methodology that ensures robustness of the final system design with respect to possible variations in the uncontrollable factors. We report on our analyses of four families of AFAS designs, which reveal the effectiveness of our approach.