Material handling in a flexible manufacturing system processing part families

The system performance of a six-machine flexible manufacturing system cell in which a material handling system is to be incorporated is analyzed. The analysis focuses on determining the production potential of the cell by grouping common parts into families. To accomplish this, computer simulation models are developed using the SIMAN simulation language. Initially the manufacturing cell is modeled with no material handling system to get an upper bound estimate of production output. The authors explore the impact that an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) has on system performance of the manufacturing system cell. A final analysis is performed in which a conveyor system is implemented as the material handling device. Upon examination of the simulation results, the authors´s recommendation is to implement a conveyor system for material handling. Using an AGV in the flexible manufacturing cell creates a bottleneck which causes production output to dramatically decrease