Calculating production rate of a flexible manufacturing module

This paper presents a closed form equation for calculating production rate of a flexible manufacturing module (FMM) which operates under stochastic conditions, including random machining times, random part loading and unloading times, and random pallet transfer times. Random operational conditions may arise due to the randomness in the variety of parts introduced into the system. The FMM consists of two machines, one pallet handling system, and a loading/unloading robot. The model and the resulting closed form equations allow the FMM designers and operation engineers select the most appropriate parameters for the maximum production output rate.