Reconfiguration Plan Evaluation Based on Preference Ranking of Key Characteristics in Reconfigurable Manufacturing System

In order to develop a quantitative evaluation index model for the essential characters of RMS (reconfigurable manufacturing system) and to optimally select the configuration plans with their outstanding advantage and disadvantage comparison, an evaluation method was proposed based on PROMETHEE (preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation). Analyzing the reconfiguration of the reconfigurable machine tool and manufacturing cell, a basic evaluation index and the quantitative model was designed to take the key characters of RMS, scalability, convertibility, diagnosability, modularity, integrability and customization. AHP (analytic hierarchy process) was used to assign the weight for these indexes. In the evaluation process, PROMETHEE I was applied firstly to analyze the advantage and disadvantage for each alternative plan. Secondly, PROMETHEE II was adopted to analyze the comprehensive advantage. Finally, the sequence of alternative plans was decided based on the analyzed results. A case study from a shop floor of an institute was presented to validate the effectiveness and practicability.