A new approach based on operational analysis for flexible manufacturing systems performance evaluation

The two main ways to evaluate the performances of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) are the simulation and the analytical methods. The usual aim of an FMS control system is to achieve the production while ensuring a prescribed product mix. Up to now analytical methods assume either that the system is monoclass, or that the service rules are first-come-first-served. A new approach, based upon Operational Analysis, is presented in this paper. It applies to multiclass systems which are constrained to ensure a prescribed product mix. No assumptions are made concerning the control rules. The proposed method allows performance prediction with a good accuracy.