The purpose of this paper is to improve the operation performance of unit-load Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) used as a carrier and mobile workstation in a flow-shop type flexible manufacturing system.
An algorithm is developed to determine the opt...
The purpose of this paper is to improve the operation performance of unit-load Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) used as a carrier and mobile workstation in a flow-shop type flexible manufacturing system.
An algorithm is developed to determine the optimal job sequence which minimizes the vehicle idle time on the line and the production makespan by the use of the entering interval and travel time between workcenters. An entering times of AGVs and the minimum number of AGVs required are calculated by optimal job sequence.
When the number of AGVs is limited, entering times of AGVs are adjusted to maximize the efficient use of vehicles. A numerical example is given to illustrate the application of the algorithm.