Flexible Manufacturing System selection using an improved compromise ranking method

Byline: R. Venkata Rao A Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is designed to combine the efficiency of a mass-production line and the flexibility of a job shop to produce a variety of products on a group of machines. Even though a number of studies were proposed in the past to address the issue of evaluation and selection of FMSs, there is a need for a simple and systematic method to guide user organisations in taking a proper decision. This is considered in this paper using an improved compromise ranking method in conjunction with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed 'FMS Selection Index' (FMS-SI) evaluates and ranks FMSs for a given FMS selection problem. Two examples are included to illustrate the approach.