QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

METHOD FOR FMS

CHAPTER 5
 FMS design issues
1. Workstation types
2. Variations in process routings and FMS layout
(increasing product variety move you from in-line
layouts to open field layouts)
3. Material handling system
4. Work in process (WIP) and storage capacity (FMS
storage capacity must be compatible with WIP)
5. Tooling (numbers and types of tools at each station,
tool duplication)
6. Workpiece monitoring (status of various systems)
7. Pallet fixtures (numbers in system, flexibility
 FMS operational issues

1. Scheduling (lịch sử xuất chính) (master

production schedule) and dispatching (launching
of parts into the system)
2. Machine loading
3. Part routing
4. Part grouping
5. Tool management
6. Pallet and fixture allocation
 FMS quantitative analysis
• Four models:
1. Deterministic models (mô hình tất định) (don’t include
operating characteristics, including queues, that may degrade
performance, thus are a little optimistic)
2. Queueing models (mô hình xếp hàng) xem lại cái này
3. Discrete event simulation (simulation) (moohinfh mô phỏng)
4. Heuristic approaches (mô hình rời rạc)
FMS bottleneck model
Bottleneck – output of a production system has an upper
limit, given an upper bounds on the product mix
flowing through the system
- Introduce the bottleneck model to provide initial FMS
parameter estimates
- Introduce terminology and symbols
- Demonstrate on examples
 FMS terminology and symbols
• Part mix (trộn các chi tiết)
pj = fraction of system output that is of style j (tỉ lệ fraction của output
hệ thống part kiểu j)
P = total number of part styles made in FMS in given
time period (ở mỗi thời điểm thời gian này sẽ thay đổi)

• Workstations and servers (workstation that can duplicate process

capabilities of another workstation )
n = number of workstations
Si = number of servers (người phục vụ máy) at each station i (i = 1,2,
…n, and we include the load/unload station as an FMS workstation)
• Process routing – for each part or product, defines operational
sequence (trình tự của các nguyên công), assigned workstations,
and associated process times, including loading and unloading
times
tijk = processing time for a part/product in a given server, not
including waiting time, where
i = station i
j = part/product j
k = particular operation in process routing sequence of
operations
• Work handling system – material handling system is considered
a special workstation and designate it as station n + 1; then
sn+1 = number of carriers (khay) (servers) in handling system
(conveyors, carts (xe đẩy), AGV’s, etc.)
• Transport time
tn+1 = mean transport time required to move the part from one
• Operation frequency (tần suất cho nguyên công) – expected number of
times a given operation in the process routing is performed for each work
unit, e.g, an inspection of a dimension
fijk = operation frequency for operation k for part j at station i

• fijk is usually one since each operation is usually performed once on a

different workstation! Exceptions might exist for part inspection stations.
Note that there are many zero values since not all parts and operations go
through every machine.

• Average workload (Li) – mean operational time of station i per part,

calculated as (units are in min.)
Li = Sj Sk tijk fijk pj
Workload of the handling system is the mean transport time (tn+1) multiplied
by the average number of transports to complete part.

• Average number of transports (nt) is the mean number of operations in the

process routing minus 1:
nt = Si Sj Sk fijk pj – 1
difficult interpretation!
Workload of handling system is Ln+1 = nt tn+1
 FMS example – determine nt

• Simple system has machining station and load/unload station.

• If system processes single part, determine n t.
• One part (j = 1) so
p1 = 1.0
Unload
fi1k = 1.0 Load

• 3 routing operations: load part at 1-> route to station 2 for

machining-> return to station 1 for unloading
• Then
nt = 1(1.0) + 1(1.0) + 1(1.0) - 1 = 2
“load” “machine at 2” “unload”
 FMS quantitative models
• FMS production is usually constrained by a bottleneck
station (consider the handling station also), which is the
station i with the highest workload per server as measured by
Li/si. Designate i = b the bottleneck station and calculate the
maximum production rate from
Rmax = sb/Lb (number of parts per time for station b)
• Note: This is valid even for parts not passing through the
bottleneck station because the part mix ratios are fixed and
limited by the bottleneck station.
• Individual production rates are
Rj = pj sb/Lb
• Mean workstation utilization is the proportion of time that
stations are active as determined from
Ui = Rmax Li/si ( Ub = 1)
• The average station utilization is
U = Si Ui/(n+1)
• The overall FMS utilization is weighted by the number of
servers at each station (not including handling stations)
Us = Si siUi/ Si si
• Number of busy servers at other than the bottleneck
station determined from
Bi = Rmax Li
 FMS example
An FMS with 4 stations is
designed so that station 1 is
load/unload, station 2 performs
milling operations with 3 servers,
station 3 performs drilling
operations with 2 servers, while
station 4 performs part inspection
on part samples. The part handling
system has a mean transport time
of 3.5 min and 2 carriers
(AGV,....). The FMS produces
parts A, B, C, and D with part mix
fractions and routings shown in
the table. Determine:
- FMS max production rate
- Production rate of each part
- Each station utilization
- Overall FMS utilization
 Solution
First, determine bottleneck station by calculating workloads:
L1 = (4+2)(1.0)(0.1 + 0.2 + 0.3 + 0.4) = 6.0 min.
L2 = (20)(1.0)(0.1) + 25(1.0)(0.2) + (30)(1.0)(0.4) = 19.0 min.=>
bottleneck
Similarly, L3 = 14.4 min ; L4 = 4.0 min
nt = (4.5 - 1)(0.1) + (5.2 - 1)(0.2) + (3.5 -1)(0.3) + (3.333 - 1)(0.4) = 2.783
L5 = (2.873)(3.5) = 10.06 min. …part handling station!
Now calculate Rmax = Li/si to identify bottleneck:
L1/s1 = 6.0/1 = 6.0
L2/s2 = 19.0/3 = 6.333
L3/s3 = 14.4/2 = 7.2 …the bottleneck! Rmax = 2/14.4 = 0.1389 pc/min.
(8.333 pc/hr)
L4/s4 = 4.0/1 = 4.0 L 5/s5 = 10.06/2 = 5.03
• Production rate for each part:
RA = 8.333(0.1) = 0.8333 pc/hr.
RB = 8.333(0.2) = 1.667 pc/hr.
RC = 8.333(0.3) = 2.500 pc/hr.
RD = 8.333(0.4) = 3.333 pc/hr.

• Station utilization:
U1 = (6.0/1)(0.1389) = 0.8333 (83.33%)
U2 = (19.0/3)(0.1389) = 0.879
U3 = (14.4/2)(0.1389) = 1.0
U4 = (4.0/1)(0.1389) = 0.555
U5 = (10.06/2)(0.1389) = 0.699

• Overall FMS utilization (exclude part handling):

U1 = [1(0.833) + 3(0.879) + 2(1.0) + 1(0.555)]/7= 0.861 (86.1%)
Determine the production rate of part D that will increase
the utilization of station 2 to 100%. Note that this is possible
since part D does not go through station 3, the bottleneck
station, and station 2 is under utilized.

Solution:
Set U2 = 100% and solve U2 = 1.0 = L2(0.1389)/3 to get L2 =
21.6 min. as compared to 19.0 min. previously.
Parts A, B and D are processed by station 2. Parts A and B
are constrained in their production rate by the other stations,
but not part D which is only processed by station 2.
We first determine the portion of the station 2 workload
taken up by A and B:
L2(by A+B) = 20(0.1)(1.0) + 25(0.2)(1.0) = 7.0 min.
At 100% utilization the workload for part D
increases to 21.6 – 7.0 = 14.6 min., where it was
19.0 – 7.0 = 12.0 min. at 87.9% utilization. The
production rate for part D is now increased to
14.6(3.333)/12.0 = 4.055 pc/hr.

Note that increasing the throughput for part D will

change the part mix ratios previously presented