A simulation study to evaluate the effect of flexibility on flow time

In today?s competitive environment, companies are seeking for newer capabilities to survive. Especially, the manufacturing companies struggle to increase their inner potential by establishing the better manufacturing policies. In the increasing variety of demands and the products, it has been essential to include flexibility in the manufacturing policies. However, flexibility itself, without analyzing the type and conditions of the manufacturing system, may have no meaning. The level and the type of flexibility require to be adjusted and to be monitored for having the expected benefits fully. This thesis specifically intended to find effects of flexibility in job shop manufacturing. For this purpose, a hypothetical system with six machines and ten types of jobs at most with the six different operation types has been considered. Twelve scenarios are developed under four different cases (with/without transportation, with/without additional processing time), five level of flexibility, two different machine selection rule, and three types of dispatching rules. Developed models are experimented by the use of SIMAN simulation language. Findings have been tested statistically. Results indicated that full flexibility is a preferable state for most of the cases. However, in some cases chain configurations perform better since it combines the benefits of pooling and specialization.