Abstract
A full functional FMS (FF-FMS), in which each machining center has all of the tools required for processing various kinds of jobs, is superfluous and wasteful in meeting changeable demands in a flexible manner. To reduce the redundancy and to obtain the utilization as high as that of the FF-FMS, we proposed methods for distributing tools to each machining center in a two-machine, jobshop-type, partly separated functional FMS (PSF-FMS) having some duplicated tools. In this paper, we propose a method for distributing tools in a jobshop-type PSF-FMS having more than three machines. Some simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for achieving the high utilization of the PSF-FMS with less amount of duplicated tools.
