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Received 15 April 2004; received in revised form 2 May 2004; accepted 15 June 2005
Abstract
The paper highlights the issues of process flow planning within a machining cell with a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) integrated
into it. The use of such equipment in FMS structures involves definite implications to decision making on proper allocation and sequencing
inspection operations with regard to the incurred costs of quality assurance and the requirements of efficient system operation. An integrated
simulation based approach to the study of interactions between part inspection heuristics and scheduling policies was adopted, using a real
case of a robot served cell and data from industrial practice. The selection of inspection plans has been found to have a significant impact
on the assessed cell performance measures. The investigation shows that job sequencing strategies heavily relied on the inspection plan
to be introduced in the cell. Results of the work indicate the practical usability of developed simulation modelling and analysis scheme
for the selection of process alternatives in discrete part manufacturing. The investigated, alternative process flow strategies can be directly
implemented to real time shop floor control using currently available software and standardised interfaces, accordingly with the CIM-OSA
concept.
© 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: FMS; Scheduling; Inspection sequencing; Coordinate measuring machine (CMM); Process flow; Discrete-event simulation
0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2005.06.051
28 M. Siemiatkowski, W. Przybylski / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 27–34
programs that enable the user to timely maintain the process ing station (a CMM) integrated into it. Such a facility, oper-
and products within given specifications. This is in partic- ating as a relatively autonomous dynamic job shop type
ular the case in regard to complex high-precision products production system, is designated to manufacturing a definite
and parts of high processing requirements [9,11]. Quality spectrum of part types in small batches. Hence, jobs can arrive
assurance by the in-line inspection activities in multi-stage, in the cell in presumed time periods, with a different part
small batch part manufacturing is employed for high qual- sequence and equal probabilities and follow a definite route
ity products, monitoring the status of machines, preventive through it, as predefined in corresponding process plans.
maintenance, etc. [6,10]. A real case of a multi-station machining cell installed in the
Existing literature provides a number of models for opti- FMS Lab of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty at Gdansk
mal allocation of inspection activities in manufacturing pro- University of Technology is chosen for the empirical studies
cess and methods applied are chiefly based on operations of process flow planning and control issues and in particular
research (OR) and less often simulation approaches. The the performance of selective inspection sequencing rules [3].
models developed so far yet are mostly adequate for conven- This is meant mainly due to its generic representation of a
tional serial (linear) multi-stage systems [8,13]. Numerous typical FMS structure.
examples of past research in assigning operations to machines The system, shown in Fig. 1, consists of two Fanuc CNC
and job sequencing in FMSs show at the same time that work centres: a chuck turret lathe of the Cyclone® series
models and strategies performing well with traditional job (called further as L) and a 2.5-axis vertical type milling centre
shops or production (transfer) lines do not prevail at flexible of Triac ATC® series (MC) with a 8 station tool magazine
manufacturing environment [7,8]. This is conceivable since and an automatic tool changer, both of Denford Ltd. [15]
the association of such sophisticated inspection equipment, and an automated bridge-type coordinate measuring machine
as CMMs with routing and scheduling flexibility inherently Vista® (CMM) of Carl Zeiss [16]. It includes also a set of
possessed by an FMS has involved rather intricate issues per- task-oriented computers operating in a network to control
tinent to inspection planning and sequencing. These issues all the operations within the cell, with interfacing individual
further attract research attention [4,7,8] and still remain to be manufacturing functions.
fully explored and solved. The machines are equipped with relevant sets of tools and
Network structure and highly automated nature of even fixtures required to perform assigned operations of all parts
a standard FMS lead to complex interactions between the manufactured in the specific cell. At the same time, relevant
individual manufacturing processes and part inspection oper- Zeiss software (i.e. Umess UX® and Calypso® ), provided
ations [4,6]. Therefore, the effects of process capability on with the CMM for computer aided inspection (CAI), ensure
overall manufacturing costs and production lead times turn the accomplishment of assigned part measuring tasks and the
out to be difficult to explicitly estimate [9,12]. analysis of the measurement results in a proper manner [16].
Considering the dynamics of an operating FMS, the use of The load/unload area of a palletised conveyor provides
purely mathematical/analytical models seem to be impracti- P IN and P OUT stations with pallet changers for in-process
cal to detailed system analysis [3,8]. inventory queues. Rail-guided 5-axis industrial robot IRp-
Hence, applying an object oriented approach to process 6 (IR) of ABB, positioned on a linear slide, enables the
specification, combined with discrete-event, visual simula- bi-directional transportation of parts among individual sta-
tion seems to be a most appropriate means. This enables in tions. Thus, parts can be moved in and out of each machine
particular more effective modelling the manufacturing pro- according to a definite process sequence. Buffering parts at
cesses with measuring function included, extensive investi- the processing machines included in the cell structure is not
gation of dynamic process behaviour in a series of simulation considered throughout this research.
runs by assumed scenarios and consequently its quantitative The cell layout outlined above is mapped within a simu-
evaluation [2,7,14]. lation project carried out further in the frame of this paper.
2.1. Production activity control scheme for a machining of any disturbances, e.g. machine breakdowns or noncon-
cell forming part units revealed in the system. The implemented
process plan may then be updated considering any changes in
Respective planning and operational issues of the specific the manufacturing environment. The corresponding tasks at
FMCell are solved based on an integrated hierarchical scheme the lower level of PAC system, associated with real process
of distributed shop floor control, termed further as produc- control, can be effectively performed using Denford CIM
tion activity control (PAC) system and presented in Fig. 2. A Control Software® [15]. The building modules named above
relevant work list (master production schedule) for a deter- interact through the communication interface/protocol pro-
mined time period is formed in off-line mode by MRP-type vided with the implemented software.
planning system, provided that jobs can arrive intermittently The approach suggested is also consistent with reference
in the dynamic shop. This list normally includes part types, data models and object oriented methods applied in the frame-
lot sizes and associated due dates. Thus, jobs included in it work of the defined shop floor control architecture [5] or
are processed within an individual production cycle under CIM-OSA (Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open Sys-
control, that can be also repeated many times, according to tem Architecture) that is summarised in e.g. [18].
the assumed generic model of MTO (make to order) policy
[1]. 2.2. Research objectives and a case study
The upper level of the outlined scheme is intended to
sequence jobs, considering part measuring function based The research study deals with an exemplary case of
on the manufacturing data, according to assumed objective manufacturing nine different part types, selected in simi-
function (a set of performance measures) as well as to anal- lar dimension range and with small production volumes,
yse and evaluate generated workflows, using commercially considering specifics of the cell under study. Both axially
available simulation means. Basically, the off-line (predic- symmetric and prismatic parts, therein cam and eccentric
tive) scheduling approach is followed; hence the short-term components are considered in the assumed part spectrum
schedule produced for a forthcoming time period remains (Fig. 3). These are derived from a database of a medium-
unchanged during it [7,17]. sized company and a representative sample is formed of 22
The selected schedule (process plan) is then implemented parts totally.
by the remaining modules, i.e. the dispatcher and monitor Processing requirements related to given part types are
of the lower level of the PAC scheme, over a specified time specified by the process plans, developed at the initial stage of
period. The dispatcher takes the generated plan and issues modelling. Part processing starts at the input station and trav-
appropriate commands to machines/stations and the devices els subsequently to proper workstations for sets of machin-
of material handling system (MHS), located within a cell. ing/measuring operations. A part arrives in the system imme-
The real time monitor is responsible for process flow tracking diately before commencing the first operation corresponding
with graphic status monitoring and notifying the dispatcher with it.
Fig. 2. Simplified production activity control (PAC) architecture for a flexible machining cell; L: lathe, MC: milling centre, CMM: coordinate measuring
machine, IR: industrial robot, MHS: material handling system.
30 M. Siemiatkowski, W. Przybylski / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 27–34
Table 1
Processing sequence and machining operation time data (min) for a part sample
Work centre Parts spectrum
From the above mentioned, the AFO and AEO strategies imum work-in-process inventories (WIP) and the shortest
for part inspection sequencing have been investigated in detail make span have been identified as the most appropriate. This
in the frame of this research, while the latter one was con- is found to be valid both for an FMCell operating with the
sequently considered as a benchmark. Furthermore in the AFO and with the AEO part inspection plans. Hence, these
extreme, the two strategies seem to determine the expected schedule solutions are consequently utilised further within
lower and upper limits for values of operational cell perfor- the extended simulation project.
mance as measured by e.g. production flow time (a make
span).
It is also assumed that all defective part units revealed 4. Simulation studies of discrete manufacturing
in the cell at the gauging station (the CMM) are scrapped process
without recycling back into the manufacturing process.
The mean measuring operation times on parts are assumed In order to explore operational system characteristics of a
to be in the proportion to the sum of all previously un- definite layout simulation models were built using witness® ,
inspected operation times and as often suggested in the related the visual interactive simulation software [7,14,19]. The pro-
literature, exponentially distributed [8,19], unlike determin- grammable models are developed in progression with sub-
istically set machining operation times. Thus within simu- sequent verification and validation stages so as to gain the
lation, mean values of the times have been set within the sufficient accuracy in real process mapping and to achieve
range from 20 to 45% of the related machining operation the project’s objectives.
times depending on a part type, based on authors’ experi- The cell structure is simulated for given manufacturing
ence with the use of the Vista machine at similar measuring data sets and schedule solutions, derived from the previous
tasks. However, in regard to the case of a cell operating by stage of investigation. Such additional input parameters as
the AEO inspection sequencing strategy the overall part mea- the part inter-arrival times are set deterministically within the
suring times are assumed slightly longer. This is because of proper simulation runs, according to the prototyped schedules
repeated (double) part positioning at the CMM. with the AFO and AEO inspection rules.
Obviously, the times related to the preparation of appro- Probability of part nonconforming is considered as a fac-
priate measuring programs for parts are not counted in the tor that might affect the performance of the schedules under
respective measuring operation times as those programs have study. Based on our experience with the practical use of the
been created in the off-line mode by means of available CMM system, the probability of non-conforming (P) is assumed
software, using imported CAD data [6,10]. arbitrary within the 2–5% range, depending on the complex-
Part scheduling rules define the priority which allows an ity of a part, and programmed into related models. In the
idle machine to select the next part to be processed from those simulation, each time a part is measured, a random number
available in the cell input pallet station or from an another (R) in a value between 0 and 1 is generated. If it is less than P,
machine awaiting the unload (with part processing finished), the part is recognised as a non-conforming one. Such a part
using the transport mean (IR). At the shop floor level machine is due to exit the cell immediately through its output station
loading decisions are normally made on a real time basis as a consequence of the assumption that part types assigned
[7,8]. in the order list for the analysed production period remain
As the scheduling problem in an FMS belongs to the unchanged during it (no further work is done on scrapped
NP-hard class the use of mathematical/analytical models is part units).
inadequate also here. Therefore, at the stage of modelling Thus, the simulation investigation carried out in the frame
(predictive scheduling) the utilisation of well-known heuris- of this research is partially based on a stochastic modelling
tics is justifiable, in the sort of FCFS: first come first served; framework including the estimated probability of part non-
SPT (LPT): shortest (longest) processing time; TOT: total conformity and the defined distribution of part measuring
processing time; SRPT (LRPT): shortest (longest) remain- times.
ing processing time; SQL: shortest queue length, etc. [2,7]. As it could be noticed with the respective studies yet, at
Apart from those, also advanced planning and scheduling the assumed level of the non-conforming probability and the
(APS) rules, implemented in the Preactor® software package relatively small part sample (22 part units), with 10 replica-
[20] are considered. The generated deadlock-free workflow tions of a simulated production cycle it has had a negligible
structures are amply tested in the environment of this soft- effect on the analysed cell performance measures.
ware under push and pull paradigms and ‘what if’ scenarios
with respect to assumed performance criteria, while consid-
ering the selected part inspection strategies and following the 5. Experimental results and discussion
demand from individual machines. The performance criteria
(measures) included after all the make span lengths, machine Various data are collected from the experiments as per-
utilisation, average lead times and cell production rates. As formance measures of the cell operating under different
a result of the comparative analysis the schedule solutions inspection sequencing policies. The most substantial results
produced under push paradigm and characterised by min- concerning the discrete process flow, studied within the range
32 M. Siemiatkowski, W. Przybylski / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 27–34
Fig. 4. Machine utilisation statistics in (%) in a definite cell by total simu- Fig. 6. Calculated values of Z measure (%) and average WIP rates (number
lation time with AFO and AEO part inspection strategies. of units) for the specific cell operating under selected part inspection plans.
M. Siemiatkowski, W. Przybylski / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 27–34 33
Fig. 7. Time series of WIP rates for an FMCell operating with AFO (a) and AEO (b) inspection strategies.
the cell, and defined in the following form: regard to case with AFO inspection rule (Fig. 7a), whereas
n for the compared case based on the AEO plan (Fig. 7b)
1 (tMok + tIok ) the respective number of in process parts was at the most
Z= (3)
n FTk two.
k=1
This is because of the increased number of sequenced mea-
where tMok is the total machining time for k-th part type; tIok suring operations for the latter case, occurred at the CMM.
the total inspection operation time for k-th part type; FTk the The gauging station is identified here as a bottleneck that
average flow (throughput) time for k-th part type (including its affects directly the queuing time for parts at machining sta-
transportation, set-up ad queuing times) and n means number tions and in the material handling system.
of part types in the spectrum machined in the cell (equivalent
to the number of processed jobs).
For the need of calculations, average flow times for indi- 6. Conclusions
vidual part types are determined as a result of performed
simulation runs. Clearly, the best strategies are those that This paper extends an inspection-planning problem with
maximise the value of Z and at the same time ensure the a multi-stage robot served FMS-type system, involving the
acceptable level of nonconforming parts manufactured in the use of a CMM. An integrated simulation based approach
system. was adopted to study interactions between part inspection
Calculated values of Z measure along with average WIP strategies and part scheduling policies. The investigation has
rates related to both compared process flows are presented shown that the selection of a job sequencing policy heav-
graphically in Fig. 6. Irrespective of applied inspection plan- ily relied on the inspection plan to be introduced and every
ning rule relatively high values of Z are obtained as a con- time the CMM was found as a bottleneck station, causing the
sequence of assumed job sequencing strategies with entering increase in part queuing times and machine down times in
parts into the cell immediately before commencing their the cell.
machining process, as indicated above yet. Selection of inspection plans has been found to have a
More importantly, the significant increase in average WIP significant impact on the assessed cell performance measures.
levels observed with regard to the process realised with The analysis carried out is confined to process alternatives
AFO inspection rule, correspondingly with higher value of Z, with the AFO and AEO inspection plans, for the imple-
implies the increased possibility for parallel processing parts mentation of other inspection heuristics would require the
in individual cell stations. Thus, despite missing facilities in identification of critical manufacturing operations such as:
the cell for buffering semi-finished parts, applying this rule the most costly ones and/or the most likely to generate non-
for in-line part inspection is of value since it results in the conforming part units.
reduction in machine downtimes that in turn yields signifi- The applicability of the approach is shown in experiments,
cantly shorter production cycles. based on a real case of a machining cell, and generated pro-
This regularity can be explicitly perceived in relevant time cess plans with inspection operations can be directly imple-
series concerning work-in-process (WIP) rates within the mented within production control activities, and performed
cell, recorded at the successive points of time and obtained on a real time basis.
in the experiments, that are presented in Fig. 7. Further research work aims at the development of mod-
As it can be seen in the time series of WIP shown by the elling capabilities, including stochastic factors of system
overall production cycle at least two different parts could be operation under dynamic conditions, along with the analy-
simultaneously in operation over greater part of time with sis of process variance.
34 M. Siemiatkowski, W. Przybylski / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 27–34