Title: Economic evaluation of the planning of a flexible manufacturing system

Authors: Zone-Ching Lin, C.B. Yang

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan Institute of Technology, 43, Keelung Road, Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan 10672, Republic of China. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hwa-Zsi Junior College of Technology, Taiwan, Republic of China

Abstract: The high initial cost of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) and the presence of numerous stochastic variables during a long production period make it difficult to calculate the cost-profit ratio of FMS using ordinary cost accounting. The return on investment and the number of years of cost return cannot therefore be specified. This article focuses on how the industry can use the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate the economic effectiveness in planning an FMS as a production system. A model using the AHP to evaluate the economic feasibility of planning an FMS is established in this article. We recommend that the industry use the AHP to evaluate the priority of a job shop, a partial automation factory or an FMS factory. The results can serve as references for the industry in assessing the planning of an FMS system.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process; AHP; economic effectiveness; economic evaluation; flexible manufacturing systems; FMS planning; cost accounting.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.1995.062398

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 1995 Vol.8 No.1/2, pp.21 - 29

Published online: 05 Jun 2014 *

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