An Analytical and Simulation Approach for Modeling Flexible Manufacturing System

Varying needs of customer causes fluctuation in existing market condition. So, it's a challenge for manufacturing firms to protect their existence under every unpredicted situation. For this, there is a need of system that can handle changes smoothly. Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is one of the solutions that enable any system to withstand the changing requirements of market. But due to high installation and capital cost of FMS, a method that can easily depicts its performance measures before its implementation is needed. In literature, there are various mathematical programming approaches for prior calculation of FMS performance. But due to their difficulty in solving complex problem, simulation technique is used for FMS analysis. Selection of performance parameters followed by system modeling using simulation technique is usually performed to see the results under varying conditions. In present work, process simulator is used for analysing FMS performance. Later, a mathematical technique is used for comparing and verifying the results obtained by simulation. Results showed it is easier to analyse the performance of complex and large FMS problems by simulation techniques in comparison to mathematical one.