Abstract
A new tool allocation method is proposed, in this paper, to consider both the load balancing among the machining centers (MCs) and the transportation time of jobs between the MCs. The proposed tool allocation method consists of two steps. In the first step, the individual tools are assigned to the tool sets based on the integer programming, in order to balance the load among the tool sets. In the second step, the individual tool sets are assigned to the MCs based on the quadratic assignment problem, in order to minimize the transportation time of jobs. Some case studies have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
