An Evaluative Study of Operation Grouping Policies in an FMS

The increased use of flexible manufacturing systems to provide customers with diversified products efficiently has created a significant set of operational challenges for managers. This technology poses a number of decision problems that need to be solved by researchers and practitioners. In the literature, there have been a number of attempts to solve design and operational problems. Special attention has been given to machine loading problems, which involve the assignment of job operations and allocation of tools and resources to optimize specific measures of productivity. Most existing studies focus on modeling the problem and developing heuristics in order to optimize certain performance metrics rather than on understanding the problem and the interaction between the different factors in the system. The objective of this paper is to study the machine loading problem. More specifically, we compare operation aggregation and disaggregation policies in a random flexible manufacturing system (EMS) and analyze its interaction with other factors such as routing flexibility, sequencing flexibility, machine load, buffer capacity, and alternative processing-time ratio. For this purpose, a simulation study is conducted and the results are analyzed by statistical methods. The analysis of results highlights the important factors and their levels that could yield near-optimal system performance

A simulation model for military deployment

The Deployment Planning Problem (DPP) for military units may in general be defined as the problem of planning the movement of geographically dispersed military units from their home bases to their final destinations using different transportation assets and a multimodal transportation network while obeying the constraints of a time-phased force deployment data describing the movement requirements for troops and equipment. Our main contribution is to develop a GISbased, object-oriented, loosely-coupled, modular, platformindependent, multi-modal and medium-resolution discrete event simulation model to test the feasibility of deployment scenarios. While our simulation model is not a panacea for all, it allows creation and testing the feasibility of a given scenario under stochastic conditions and can provide insights into potential outcomes in a matter of a few hours. © 2007 IEEE

Mixed-model assembly line sequencing using beam search

In today's manufacturing environments, companies have to produce a large variety of products in small quantities on a single assembly line. In this paper, we use a beam search (BS) approach to solve the model-sequencing problem of mixed-model assembly lines (MMALs). Specifically, we develop six BS algorithms for part-usage variation and load-leveling performance measures. The results of computational experiments indicate that the proposed BS methods are competitive with the well-known heuristics in the literature. A comprehensive bibliography is also provided

A design of experiments approach to military deployment planning problem

We develop a logistics and transportation simulation that can be used to provide insights into potential outcomes of proposed military deployment plans.More specifically, we model the large-scale real-world military Deployment Planning Problem.It involves planning the movement of military units from their home bases to their final destinations using different transportation assets on a multimodal transportation network. We use an intelligent design of experiments approach to evaluate logistics factors with the greatest impact on the overall achievement of a typical real-world military deployment plan. © 2008 IEEE

Simulation modelling and analysis of a border security system

Border control is vital to the security of a nation and its citizens. All countries look at measures to improve the security of their borders. But increasing security can bring a substantial financial burden. In this study, we analyze the border security problem of Turkey using a simulation approach. Our main objective is to find more efficient ways of improving border control and security along Turkey's land borders. To achieve this, we examine the structure of the border security system and its major elements, examine the relationships between performance measures, and assess the effectiveness of security elements on each system performance measure. We also look into the issues of planned changes and additional resources, and we evaluate new alternative system designs. The results of simulation experiments are analyzed by statistical methods. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Evaluation of mobilization and deployment plan of an armored battalion

[No abstract available