A Production Planning Method to Optimally Exploit the Potential of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems

Manufacturing companies must operate in a dynamic environment. Consequently, companies constantly have to adapt their manufacturing systems to stay competitive. One approach to ensure the success of manufacturing companies is to use reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS). Current production planning methods cannot quickly realize the production-side adaptions available in RMS and are limited in flexibility. A novel production planning method to optimize the potential of RMS is presented in this paper. First, the key characteristics and planning requirements for an RMS are defined. A feasible configuration is then determined, using a planning method based on mixed integer linear programming (MILP) to realize capacity scalability and functionality changes within planning processes. Finally, an application scenario to validate the method is outlined.