Measuring flexibility of job-shop layouts

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
It is generally agreed that flexibility in job-shop layouts is a desirable goal which must be planned for in a systematic fashion. Not generally available, however, are procedures by which alternate layout designs can be quantitatively evaluated with respect to the amount of flexibility a particular layout may possess. This paper is concerned with facilities design of job-shop layouts, and analysis of the ability of these layouts to respond to known and future product mixes. The ability of layouts to respond to known and future product mixes is defined as flexibility. Design of a facility is restricted to the spatial arrangement of machines, material-1product storage areas and entrances-exits. An approach is presented which uses annual material handlingtosts that vary from one design to another as a measure of a design's flexibility. The measure is tested on an actual shop and six alternative layouts. The example indicates not only that annual material handling costs can be used successfully as a relative measure of the flexibility a particular layout arrangement possesses, but also that it provides a measure by which the cost: benefit ratio of changing to an alternate design can be evaluated. Guidelines are presented which discuss the limitations and applicability of using this approach to evaluate job-shop layout flexibility.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: