Structural Complexity of Manufacturing Systems Layout by Valeria Betzabe Espinoza Vega A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada © 2012 Valeria Espinoza Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-76377-3 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-76377-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Structural Complexity of Manufacturing Systems Layout by Valeria Espinoza APPROVED BY: ______________________________________________ Dr. Darren Stanley Faculty of Education ______________________________________________ Dr. Ahmed Azab Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering ______________________________________________ Dr. Hoda ElMaraghy, Advisor Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering ______________________________________________ Dr. Waguih ElMaraghy, Chair of Defense Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering DECLARATION OF CO-AUTHORSHIP/PREVIOUS PUBLICATION This thesis includes one original paper that has been previously submitted for publication in a peer reviewed conference proceedings, as follows: Thesis Chapter Publication Title/Full Citation Publication Status V. Espinoza, H. ElMaraghy, T. AlGeddawy, S.Samy (2011). Chapter 3 “‟Assessing the Structural Complexity Submitted of Manufacturing Systems Layout”, In: 4th CIRP Conference on Assembly Technologies and Systems. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone‟s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis and have included copies of such copyright clearances to my appendix. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies Office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution. iii ABSTRACT The layout of a manufacturing facility/system not only shapes material flow pattern and influence transportation cost, but also affects the decision making process on the shop floor. The layout of manufacturing systems determines the information content of its structural complexity inherent in the layout by virtue of its configuration design. This thesis proposes a methodology which converts the physical system layout to a graphical representation to produce measurable complexity indices. The elements to represent the physical layout are the number of places where decisions are made and relationships within the layout. The structural characteristics of the layout include density, paths, cycles, decision points, redundancy distribution and magnitude, which are captured by the complexity indices. The indices are directly determined by the information content, and the layout complexity index (LCI) combines those individual indices representing the structural complexity of the layout. The LCI is insensitive to the sequence of the complexity index values, which is its main advantage. The methodology is applied to six manufacturing systems layouts. Two layouts from the literature were used for comparison purposes since their complexity was previously assessed. The developed method is used to design the least complex layouts and to compare alternative layouts. iv DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to all members of my family, each one has taught me something very special. Especially to my parents Sergio Espinoza and Laura Vega who I love so much, and to Waldo Perez, Saul, Ricardo, Cari, and Nora. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Hoda ElMaraghy, for giving me the opportunity to collaborate in her research group and for her knowledge, guidance, suggestions, and encouragement provided during my Master‟s studies. Special thanks to my committee members Dr. Ahmed Azab and Dr. Darren Stanley for their input and valuable advice given. Special thanks to Dr. Waguih ElMaraghy for his knowledge through the graduate courses and to Dr. Tarek AlGeddawy and Dr. Sameh Badreous for their valuable expertise and discussion about this thesis. A warm thanks to Erica Lyons for her extremely kind support through this process. My best and sincere thanks to Waldo Perez for all his support, guidance, patience, encouragement, and love. None of this would be possible without you. Lastly, special thanks for the financial support provided by the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) in Mexico. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF CO-AUTHORSHIP/PREVIOUS PUBLICATION ....................... iii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION .....................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation ..................................................................................................1 1.2 Complexity in Manufacturing Systems Layout ..........................................2 1.3 Hypothesis ..................................................................................................4 1.4 Research Questions ....................................................................................4 1.5 Objectives ...................................................................................................5 1.6 Scope of the Research ................................................................................5 1.7 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................6 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Manufacturing Systems ..............................................................................8 2.2 Layout Configuration ...............................................................................10 2.3 Manufacturing System Configurations ....................................................12 2.4 System Performance Approach ................................................................16 2.5 Summary ..................................................................................................19 2.6 Complexity ...............................................................................................19 2.7 Approaches to Measuring Complexity in Manufacturing ........................22 2.7.1 Entropy/ Information Approach ...................................................22 2.7.2 Complexity in Axiomatic Design.................................................25 2.7.3 Heuristic Approach ......................................................................29 2.7.4 Hybrid Approach ..........................................................................30 2.8 Complexity in Other Fields of Engineering .............................................33 2.8.1 Complexity