Home > Engineering, Architecture > Vol 1 No 1 June 2013 Abstract 3
Simulation based layout design of large sized multi-row Flexible Manufacturing Systems
Srinivas C, Ramji K, Satyanarayana B, Naveen Ravela
Journal of Engineering & Architecture, 1(1), pp. 34-44.

Abstract
The layout of workstations in a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) plays a very important role as it critically affects the operating efficiency, system capacity and system flexibility. An effective layout of workstations can significantly cut down manufacturing lead times. The layout of workstations is an inevitable problem in all industrial plants and the decisions regarding the layout of workstations receive intense attention in production and operations management. The layout should be expandable and adaptable, should be easily maintainable and should promote high employee morale. In the present work the optimum and near optimum layouts for a 15-workstation FMS are obtained using Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) approach. To evaluate the system performance in a more realistic way, simulation models have to be connected to evolutionary methods to evaluate the candidate solutions. In the present work the results obtained from ACO approach for various FMS layout alternatives have been validated using the discrete event simulation software, Flexsim Version 3.01, which is a versatile tool for modelling and simulation of manufacturing systems. Thus the most favorable number of rows and the sequence of work stations in the individual rows are established.

Full Text: PDF

Srinivas et al. (2013). Simulation based layout design of large sized multi-row Flexible Manufacturing Systems. Journal of Engineering & Architecture, 1(1), pp. 34-44.

Wäscher, G., & Merker, J. “A comparative evaluation of heuristics for the adjacency problem in facility layout planning”, International Journal of Production Research, 35(2), 447–466. 1997.

Hassan, M. M. D. “Machine layout problem in modern manufacturing facilities”, International Journal of Production Research, 31(11), 2559–2584. 1994.

Garey, M.R. and Johnson, D.S., “Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness”, W.H.Freeman, New York. 1979

Balic, J. “Flexible Manufacturing Systems”, DAAAM International, Vienna. 2001

Tompkins, J. A., White, J. A., Bozer, Y. A., Frazelle, E. H., Tanchoco, J. M. A., & Trevino,J. Facilities planning New York. NY: John Wiley. 1996.

Dorigo, M. and Gambardella, L.M., “Ant colony system: a cooperative learning approach to the travelling salesman problem”. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 1, 53–66, 1996

Maniezzo, V., Colorni, A. and Dorigo, M., “The ant system applied to the quadratic assignment problem”. Technical report IRIDIA/94-28, Universite´ Libre de Bruxelles,Belgium, 1994.

Colorni, A., Dorigo, M., Maniezzo, V. and Trubian, M,. “Ant system for job-shop scheduling”,JORBEL – Belgian J. Oper. Res., Statistics and Computer Science, 34(1), 39–53, 1994.

Dorigo, M., & Stützle, T., “Ant colony optimization”. Cambridge: MIT Press. 2004

Gambardella, L.M. and Dorigo, M.,” HAS-SOP: Hybrid Ant System for the Sequential Ordering Problem”. Technical Report IDSIA 11–97, Lozano, Switzerland, 1997.

Solimanpur, M., Vrat, P. and Shankar, R., “Ant colony optimization algorithm to the intercelllayout problem in cellular manufacturing”, Eur. J. Oper. Res., 157, 592–606. 2004.

Carson, J.S and Nelson, B.L. Discrete-Event System Simulation, Prentice Hall Inc. 1995

Pidd ,M.. “Computer Simulation in Management Science”, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1992.

Aleisa, E. E. & Lin, L,”For effectiveness facilities planning: Layout optimization then simulation, or vice versa?”, Proceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference, 1381-1385, 2005

Pegden, C.D., Shannon, R.E. and Sadowski, R.P. Introduction to Simulation Using SIMAN, Mc Graw-Hill Inc, 1990

Gelenbe, E. and Guennouni, H.. “FLEXSIM: a flexible manufacturing system simulator.” European Journal of Operational Research, 53, 149-166. (1991)

Dorigo, M. & Di Caro, G., “The ant colony optimization meta-heuristic”, McGraw- Hill, London.1999

Nugent, C.E., Vollman, T.E., Ruml J,”An experimental comparison of techniques for the assignment of facilities to locations”, Operations Research, 16, 150-173, 1968,

19 Holland ,J.H, “Adaption in natural and artificial system”. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI. 1975

20 .Banks, J., Carson, J.S and Nelson, B.L. Discrete-Event System Simulation, Prentice Hall Inc.1995.

Dr. Srinivas.chandana is a Associate. Professor of mechanical engineering at R.V.R&J.C College of engineering, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh India. His career spans both mechanical and the industrial Engineering. At the National institute of technology (N.I.T) Calicut he obtained M.Tech and received P.hD in mechanical engineering at Andhra university in 2013.He has done P.hD in the area of “layout design and analysis of single and mutirow Flexible manufacturing systems”. He has taught subjects optimisation, operations management, Industrial engineering, operation research etc. Her research interests lie in layout design, simulation and optimization. He has published many articles in both International and national Journals, among which are several devoted to layout design in FMS, Simulation and optimization.

 

Ramji K
Satyanarayana B
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Andhra University
Visakhapatnam - 530 003, A. P
India

 

Naveen Ravela
SCR Engineering College, Guntur - 522 619
A.P., India