Title: Flexible Manufacturing System selection using an improved compromise ranking method

Authors: R. Venkata Rao

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, S.V. National Institute of Technology Ichchanath, Surat – 395 007, India

Abstract: A Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is designed to combine the efficiency of a mass-production line and the flexibility of a job shop to produce a variety of products on a group of machines. Even though a number of studies were proposed in the past to address the issue of evaluation and selection of FMSs, there is a need for a simple and systematic method to guide user organisations in taking a proper decision. This is considered in this paper using an improved compromise ranking method in conjunction with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed |FMS Selection Index| (FMS-SI) evaluates and ranks FMSs for a given FMS selection problem. Two examples are included to illustrate the approach.

Keywords: FMS selection; FMS evaluation; flexible manufacturing systems; compromise ranking method; decision making; analytical hierarchy process; AHP.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2009.022372

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2009 Vol.4 No.2, pp.198 - 215

Published online: 02 Jan 2009 *

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