Integrating artificial intelligence and simulation for controlling steady flow of fixtures

Abstract

Fixtures are one of the major problematic components in a manufacturing system because of their complicated design and management requirements. Fixture planning and management problems were not well addressed in the past publications as compared with the attention paid to the design issues. This paper is designed to address this problem using a decision-based fixture assignment and control method. A decision support framework is proposed to determine a steady state flow of fixtures for part orders planned in a specific production period. This framework integrates artificial intelligence technologies, simulations models and database management techniques in order to accommodate flexibility in a dynamic manufacturing situation. The artificial intelligence reveals how case-based and rule-based reasoning techniques work in synergy. The simulation models include discrete event and visual interactive approaches. A decision logic diagram is presented so as to depict the conditions and corresponding decision alternatives.