An integrated approach in modeling, optimization, and simulation of non-conventional manufacturing systems

今天的生产经理必须以越来越快的速度提供性能改进，以达到“更好、更快、更便宜和更清洁”的目标。全球化、日益多样化和复杂的客户市场、技术变革的快速步伐、自然资源的稀缺以及严格的环境控制都造成了动荡的商业环境。如今，如果一家制造商满足于现状，那它就是在与灭亡调情。技术，以设备和信息系统的形式，一直是提高效率和改进的途径。然而，我们组织和管理生产系统的方式同样重要，有时甚至更重要，这是提高竞争力的途径。现有的布局配置不能满足多产品企业的需求，需要更灵活、更模块化、更易于重新配置的新一代工厂布局。拟议的研究将为非常规制造系统的快速建模和仿真提供深入的支持，以回答与以下问题相关的问题：产品组合和数量的变化；机床的搬迁、增减；物料搬运系统的重构；操作员分配、排班和产能调整；以及产品的批量和调度。主要研究方向为：(1)细胞制造系统、分形制造系统和可重构制造系统的模型、算法和计算机化工具的设计与优化；(2)针对这些非常规制造系统的设计标准定制的制造系统性能指标；(3)可重构制造系统监控算法的自动合成与生成方法；(4)利用仿真模型生成器对可重构制造系统中的若干重构决策进行循环评估。

Today's production manager must deliver performance improvements at an increasing pace in order to meet the objectives of "better, faster, cheaper and cleaner." Globalization, increasingly diverse and sophisticated customer markets, the rapid pace of technological change, scarcity of natural resources, and stringent environmental controls have all contributed to a turbulent business environment. Today, if a manufacturer is satisfied with the status quo, it is flirting with extinction. Technology, in the form of equipment and information systems, has always been a route to higher efficiency and improvement. However, an equally important - and in some cases more important - avenue for competitiveness is the way we organize and manage production systems. There is an emerging consensus that existing layout configurations do not meet the needs of multi-product enterprises and there is a need for new generation of factory layout that are more flexible, modular, and easy to reconfigure. The proposed research will provide in-depth undersigning to rapid modeling and simulation of non-conventional manufacturing systems to answer questions related to: changes in product mix and volume; relocation, addition and deletion of machine tools; reconfiguration of material handling system; operator assignment, shift-scheduling and capacity adjustment; and product lot sizing and scheduling. Main contribution of the proposed research will be made in developing: (1) Models, algorithms and computerized tools to design and optimize non-conventional manufacturing systems such as cellular, fractal and reconfigurable manufacturing systems; (2) Manufacturing systems performance metrics tailored to the design criteria of these non-conventional manufacturing systems; (3) Methodologies for automatic synthesis and generation of supervisory control algorithm for reconfigurable manufacturing systems; (4) Simulation model generators to evaluate several reconfiguration decisions in reconfigurable manufacturing systems on a recurrent bases.