A Development of Flexible Manufacturing System using POLMAN T-100 Vise Casting Component as a Case Study

Now a day and future challenges in industrial activity is the ability of speed and precision to produce a product and provide services in a wide range of demands which are always want to customize. This is often faced as an industrial problem, especially if associated with the price and speed to the market (delivery) competition, it should better than the competitor. So the total unit cost has to become lower, delivery time faster and the product life cycle shorter significantly. This problem is often solved with the building automation system to produce products with customized, but the process cost is near to mass production, of course the target speed and accuracy will remain achieved. One of the automation systems in the manufacturing sector is Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) for complex components with diverse (multi) variations machining process. This system was created as a method in producing goods which can readily adapt to the product changes and should be capable to produce goods in various levels of production. It is necessary to prove that this system can achieve a better level of productivity compared to conventional method; in this case it will be taken a case study of POLMAN T-100 vise casting components by developing an own FMS which is fit to that product. This paper will explained how the FMS works by designing the configuration and performance in its elements; and simulated in producing vice casting components for 200 pairs of POLMAN T-100 vice casting product compare to the existing conventional methods. The result that FMS can produce 4 pairs of vice casting components in 3.8 hours, this mean round 20 times bigger than conventional method which it needed more than 73 hours, this FMS performance is calculated only in one long shift (10.5 hours/day), and this will be higher when it normally for FMS standard calculated in 24 working hours/day. That result is very reasonable, because FMS use machining center and material handling system (MHS) even it can run automatically with less human contact.