Using throughput profit for selecting manufacturing process plan

In a task of process plan selection using workstations, manufacturing process plans have different precedence relationships, unequal operating times, and so on. It is necessary to consider these factors in evaluation models. Due to the use of different machines and tools that would increase the line efficiency with additional cost, a traditional total cost is not a good measure for the selection of manufacturing process plans. Hence, an evaluation model using throughput profit for each manufacturing process plan is proposed. In the first step of the proposed method, the precedence relationships of the manufacturing process for each part are decomposed. Several feasible combinations with different numbers of workstations and different task assignments are generated using a line balancing method. Then, an optimization model with associated throughput profit for process parameters is used for choosing the manufacturing process plans. Implementation examples are presented to illustrate this proposed procedure.