The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology based on modularity considerations for selection of Reconfigurable Machine Tool (RMT) configurations from a set of different feasible configurations. Modularity can be calculated at system level as well a sat machine level for reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) design. In this work, modularity has been worked out at machine level adapting methodology from literature demonstrated for modularity calculations at system level. Design structure matrix (DSM) approach has been applied to calculate singular value modularity index (SVMI) for different RMT configurations for an operation. DSM is structured with the diagonal entries as zero and non-diagonal values as unity when the RMT modules are connected. The proposed methodology is illustrated through an example. Different modularity values have been sorted within the range of ‘most-modular’ to ‘least-modular’ RMT configurations. The methodology demonstrated in this work can facilitate RMT configuration selection in comprehensive RMS design problems
Volume 11 | Issue 1
Pages: 159-168