A New Hybrid Approach for Machine Layout Design UnderFamily Product Evolution For Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems.

International audienceReconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) is a new paradigm that answers many of the challenges that the market nowadays imposes. In this paper, we address one of the most important aspects related to the reactivity of RMSs. We consider the relations, which link the conceived system with two important environments: its logical environment, i.e., the product family in which the RMS can evolve, and its physical environment, i.e., the physical workshop that implements this RMS. More specifically, we study the machine layout problem by considering the family product evolution where two sub-problems are considered. The first sub-problem concerns the evolution of the product, in the same family, towards new products to meet the evolutions and the requirements of the customers. The second sub-problem deals with the machine layout problem based on the results of the first sub-problem. We develop an approach which combines the well-known metaheuristic, archived multi-objective simulated annealing (AMOSA), with an exhaustive search-based heuristic to determine the best machine layout for all the selected machines of our product family. The approach is based on the initially generated process plans of products (in the product family) for the RMS design under performance metrics. The proposed layout must at its best, respects both the constraints imposed by the generated process plans and those depicting the available location in the shop floor where machines can be placed. To show the applicability of our approach, we present a simple numerical example and discuss the obtained numerical results