Track: Reliability and Maintenance

Abstract

This paper focuses on a stochastic model to analyze performance measures of a flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) under different operational conditions, including machine failures and repairs. The FMC consists of three machines served by a robot for loading and unloading purposes, and a pallet handling system. The model is developed using ARENA software to estimate system performance measures. The simulation model validated with available exact solutions for the selected cell operations. The model utilized to analyze the FMC performance such as production rate, time in system for pallet and utilization of the system components under different parametric conditions and equipment failures and repairs. The simulation results show that FMC performance measures are sensitive to robot speeds, machining rates, pallet rates and pallet capacity. Finally, conclusions are presented and future works are discussed