The main purpose of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is simultaneously to process parts with small to medium lot sizes and high varieties. The rule despatching problem in a Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) is examined using a simulation model. This is based on an algorithm for dynamically...

A closure in a directed graph is a subset of nodes, all of whose successors belong to the subset. If each node has an assigned weight, which may be positive or negative, the maximal closure problem is one of finding a closure with the largest possible sum of node weights. It can be solved by any...

Order picking in a warehouse consumes most of the stockroom labour because of the high frequency of transactions. This article presents an algorithm for order picking in narrow‐aisle warehouses and describes its implementation using a spreadsheet. The algorithm is illustrated by an example,...

A large number of research articles have appeared in the literature during the last two decades on the subject of system reliability optimisation, each with a view to providing simple, exact and efficient techniques. Here, an efficient, fast and exact technique is proposed for solving...

A new algorithm for optimally balancing assembly lines is formulated and tested. Named "FABLE," it obtains proven optimal solutions for ten 1000 task lines, which each possess the computationally favorable conditions of an average of at least 6 tasks per work station and a small number of...