The impact of machine flexibility on the performance of flexible manufacturing systems

The performance of flexible manufacturing systems, (FMS) has been one of the major topics that has attracted the attention of production and operations management (POM) researchers for the last two decades. In this paper we study the relationship between the degree of machine flexibility and the level of system performance. A machine loading and routing model is developed and used to investigate the effect of changing machine flexibility on the performance measures of an FMS. The measures used in this paper include makespan, routing flexibility, capacity flexibility, and inventory effects. The results indicate that changes in the machine flexibility affect some measures more than others. The results also show that, for a decrease of 24 per cent in the degree of machine flexibility, makespan increases by 17 per cent, routing flexibility decreases by as much as 13 per cent, and capacity flexibility decreases by as much as 38 per cent, and the inventory decreases by as much as 26 per cent. Furthermore, as the workload on the FMS increases, the differences in the performance between two FMSs (with different degrees of machine flexibility) increase.