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

今天的生产经理必须以更快的速度提供性能改进，以实现“更好、更快、更便宜、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导致了动荡的商业环境。如今，如果一家制造商满足于现状，它就快要灭亡了。以设备和信息系统为形式的技术一直是提高效率和改进的途径。然而，同样重要的--在某些情况下甚至更重要--竞争力的途径是我们组织和管理生产系统的方式。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，这一点正在形成共识。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理解，以回答与以下相关的问题：产品组合和产量的变化；机床的重新定位、添加和删除；物料处理系统的重新配置；操作员分配、班次调度和能力调整；以及产品批量调度和调度。主要研究内容包括：(1)元胞、分维和可重构制造系统等非常规制造系统的模型、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准则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综合与生成方法；(4)可重构制造系统重构决策评估的仿真模型生成器。

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.