A Study on Information Flow and Routing in a Class of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

The routing flexibility in FMSs can be achieved through two levels : the parallel operations and the alternative stations. To accommodate this pertaining flexibility for part routing in FMSs, a hierarchical routing principle is developed which considers both the routing flexibility and the performance effectiveness, which can also be easily implemented. For the proper implementation of this routing algorithm, the required information flow is identified which turns out to be very simple.