INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR RECONFIGURABLE AND FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS USING OPTIMAL MACHINE CAPABILITIES

Abstract

Reconfigurability is an engineering technology that deals with the design and manufacturing system to make required modifications to respond cost effectively to market changes. The idea of “Reconfigurable Manufacturing system (RMS)” was evolved as a new paradigm in manufacturing industry. The concept of RMS was introduced to sustain in global market by rapid adjustment and modification of production capacity and system functionality in reaction to abrupt market demands. Manufacturing system has been evolved over the years to accommodate major design variations. To respond to these high frequency variations and to stay competitive, there is a need of having such type of manufacturing system that could cope with market trends and design changes efficiently. Product’s design and its manufacturing capabilities are closely related, thus the manufacturing system should be customized to cater all the design changes with suitable manufacturing capabilities. Reconfigurable Manufacturing system has been recommended for the turbulent market conditions because of its flexible and changeable nature. Literature reveals that scalability and reconfigurability of RMS can be achieved at a maximum level through macro process planning level. Co-evolution theories also illustrate that product, process and manufacturing systems are inter-connected. This research work is based on the co-evolution model in which optimal machine capabilities are generated through the application of optimization technique. Based on these capabilities, system is tested for reconfiguration in case of production changeovers. Considering the relevant change drivers the degree of reconfigurablity in any case of application can be achieved. In this research work two major objectives have been covered. First one is to anlyze the need of reconfigurablity and second is to exemplify that how this reconfigurability can be carried out by generating minimum machining capabilities. An algorithm has been developed using MATLAB and verified on different manufacturing parts belonging to same part family. As a result of the proposed methodology, an optimized reconfigurable framework can be achieved