Research Initiation Award: Flexibility in Manufacturing Systems: Models, Measurement, and Evaluation

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9309631 Benjaafar Although the issue of flexibility has become increasingly important to the design and operation of manufacturing systems, it has remained to a large degree ambiguous and poorly understood. The objective of the research is to address some of these limitations. In particular, the focus of efforts will be on (1) developing a generic modeling framework capable of capturing the various dimensions of flexibility in manufacturing, (2) providing robust and useful measure(s) of flexibility that reflect these various dimensions, and (3) establishing clear relationships between the degree of flexibility in a manufacturing system and the system's level of performance. More specifically they will address the following questions: (1) What constitutes flexibility and to which physical and logical characteristics in a manufacturing system can it be traced? (2) How can these characteristics be modeled so that flexibility can be easily measured and analyzed? (3) Which system performances measures, if any, are positively correlated to flexibility and what are the characteristics of such correlations? (4) What are the conditions under which flexibility may be of value and what are the operation requirements necessary for realizing this value? (5) How can the costs and benefits of flexibility be traded-off and optimal, and/or affordable, levels of flexibility be determined? The impact of the research results will be in increased useability of modeling and analysis tools and better measures of industrial system flexibility and performance.