Abstract
Flexible manufacturing is characterized by versatile work stations with minimum change over times and a versatile material handling system. The loading problem in flexible manufacturing is to assign tools, material, operations and jobs to work stations in order to minimize the total number of job-to-work station assignments. In this paper, we describe a special case of the general loading problem applied to flexible assembly and develop a discrete optimization model. We then discuss approaches for obtaining good heuristic solutions and present results for a large scale study.
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Ammons, J.C., Lofgren, C.B. & McGinnis, L.F. A large scale machine loading problem in flexible assembly. Ann Oper Res 3, 317–332 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02023747
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02023747