Formation of part family for reconfigurable manufacturing systems considering bypassing moves and idle machines

To address the problem of how to allow a reconfigurable manufacturing system to simultaneously consider efficiency and flexibility, a method is presented for the formation of part family that considers bypassing moves and idle machines. First, the longest common subsequence (LCS) among different part processes is identified. Then, based on this LCS, the shortest composite supersequence (SCS) is constructed by combining the LCS and the rest of the operation while giving consideration to bypassing moves and idle machines. Based on the linear relationship of the similarity of parts for the LCS and SCS, a similarity coefficient algorithm is designed, which is used as the basis for part clustering and family formation. Finally, the developed similarity coefficient algorithm is compared with existing similarity coefficient algorithms to verify its efficiency and accuracy. (C) 2016 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.