Resource-requirements planning in flexible manufacturing systems

In this paper, we address the problem of planning the requirements of some of the important resources in flexible manufacturing systems. Specifically, we model the problem of estimating the required numbers and types of machines and tools in the context of a cellular layout. A two-stage procedure is developed which first forms the part families, using the complete-linkage clustering method based on a new similarity index defined in terms of the tooling requirements, and then subsequently estimates the resource requirements to manufacture the part families using an integer programming model. Several variations of the model are discussed and a numerical example is given.