A design procedure for a robust job shop manufacturing system under a constraint using computer simulation experiments

A nine-step design procedure is presented for a robust job shop manufacturing system under a constraint using computer simulation experiments in this study. The development of the proposed approach is based on the Taguchi's concept and the response surface methodology. The approach first improves the robustness according to the weighted design measure (WDM) from unspecified initial settings. Once further improvements cannot be made, the optimal settings are then determined. Finally, an adjustment process is developed to find the best feasible settings based on the optimal settings that violate the constraining condition. The best feasible settings represent the combination of the number of machines at each machine station under the budgetary limitation, so that the resultant system is robust in terms of WDM. A computer simulation example is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. Some results from the example as well as the significant computing needs for designing larger systems are also discussed.