Evaluation of tool selection rules in the flexible manufacturing system

The selection of an appropriate cutting tool for the production of different jobs in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) can play a pivotal role in the efficient utilization of the FMS. The selection procedure of a cutting tool for different production operations becomes more significant with the availability of similar types of tools in the FMS. In order to select and allocate appropriate tool for various production operations in the FMS, the tool selection rules are commonly used. The application of tool selection rules is also observed to be beneficial when a system demands two or more tools for the production operations at different work centers at the same time in the FMS. In this paper, investigations are carried out to evaluate the performance of different tool selection rules in the FMS. The performance of the tool selection rules is evaluated by simulation with respect to different performance parameters in the FMS namely makespan, mean work center utilization (%) and mean automatic tool transporter (ATT) utilization (%).