Integration of process planning and scheduling through adaptive setup planning: a multi-objective approach

Abstract

The integration of process planning and scheduling is considered here as a multi-objective optimisation problem in reconfigurable manufacturing settings where more than one machines (3-axis, 4-axis and 5-axis machine configurations) are available to manufacture a part. In this research, machining features are grouped according to tool approach direction considering the criteria such as makespan, machining cost and machine utilisation. We have also addressed adaptive characteristics of process plan associated with setup i.e. a cross-machine setup planning to capture the different configuration of machines. To solve this type of multi-objective problem, a meta-heuristic, non-dominated sorting algorithm (NSGA-II) is applied to take into account the computational intractability of the problem. Further, a fuzzy set theory approach is developed to extract one of the Pareto-optimal solutions as the best compromising one. Illustrative examples are trialled to demonstrate the capability of the proposed model. The results confirm that the proposed multi-objective optimisation model gives robust performance in developing optimal adaptive setup plan.