AMOSA Based Approach for Process Plan Generation in Reconfigurable Manufacturing System with Machine Load Balancing

Recent years have seen the development of a new manufacturing paradigm that responses to market changes cost-effectively, called Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS). A RMS consists mainly of reconfigurable machines that give the system the capability to be reconfigurable. Each reconfigurable machine has multiple configurations with different capabilities and functionalities. In this paper we address the problem of process plan generation in Reconfigurable manufacturing systems taking into account the multiconfiguration nature of machines, as well as the state of the manufacturing system in term of already existing process planning. More specifically, we propose an approach that generates process plans with the consideration of other products on the system if they exist. The consideration of previously introduced products is justified by the fact that resources are shared among all products, which affects the overall machine load balancing, The problem is resolved using AMOSA (Archived MultiObjective Simulated Annealing) and the results discussed.