Study on reconfiguration cost modelling of reconfigurable manufacturing system

Nowadays, manufacturing enterprises are facing with huge challenges to react rapidly to changes and satisfy various customers´ needs with respect to production volume and product profile. Reconfigurable manufacturing mode was proposed as an advanced manufacturing philosophy to enhance the adaptability and flexibility of manufacturing systems. Through both physical and logical reconfiguration, Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) is able to fulfil customers´ needs in a cost-effective way by making full use of the resources currently available. The paper carries out the study on reconfiguration cost by using conjunction matrix to describe production process, then applied the DEDS modelling method Petri Net to model the reconfiguration process. By highlighting the differences in the process set before and after reconfiguration, the reconfiguration principle has been proposed to describe and guide the process of the manufacturing system reconfiguration.