41 † Corresponding author © 2016 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. CO-DEVELOPMENT OF PROCESS PLANNING AND STRUCTURAL CONFIGURATIONS CONSIDERING MACHINE’S ACCESSIBILITY IN A RECONFIGURABLE SETUP Eram Asghar 1 † --- Aamer Ahmad Baqai 2 --- Ramshah Ahmad Toor 3 --- Sara Ayub 4 1,3 Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Pakistan 2,4 National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan ABSTRACT Manufacturing System has been evolved over the years to accommodate major design variations. To respond to these high frequency variations and to stay competitive, there is a need of having such type of manufacturing system that could cope with market trends and design changes efficiently. Product’s design and its manufacturing capabilities are closely related, thus the manufacturing system should be customized to cater all the design changes with suitable manufacturing capabilities. Reconfigurable Manufacturing system has been recommended for the turbulent market conditions because of its flexible and changeable nature. This research work is based on the co-generated model in which optimal machine configurations are generated through the application of optimization technique. Based on these configurations, system is tested for reconfiguration in case of production changeovers. Considering the relevant change drivers the degree of reconfigurability in any case of application can be achieved through proposed algorithm. A case study has been presented to illustrate the application of proposed model based on the technological constraints. Keywords: Reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), Multi objective genetic algorithm (MOGA), Alternative process plans (APPs), Flexible manufacturing system (FMS), Reconfigurable process planning (RPP), Genetic algorithms (GA), Dedicated manufacturing system (DMS). Received: 23 August 2016/ Revised: 23 September 2016/ Accepted: 5 October 2016/ Published: 19 October 2016 Contribution/ Originality This study contributes in the existing literature of reconfiguration in a manufacturing system. Considering the parameters mentioned in eq.1 makes this approach generic, reliable and cost effective. Selection of operation and its sequence has given better flexibility and scalability through the application of MOGA. Actual resources (machining and assembly setups) can be obtained using this approach by measuring extent of reconfiguration for production changeovers. 1. INTRODUCTION Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) has revolutionized the manufacturing industry. It has been integrated from some of the valuable features of Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) and Dedicated Manufacturing System (DMS): flexibility from FMS and multi tool operation from DMS [1, 2]. In this perspective a lot of research is in progress in the field of reconfigurable process planning (RPP). The industrial requirement is to have such a system that could reduce the cost and enhance the product’s quality in parallel. Thus with the objective of minimizing the cost and product’s manufacturing time, this research work is based on the generation of optimal machine configuration for producing different features of a part. Machine accessibility is one of the key elements in generating structural configurations. It allows the tool to reach the surface of the manufacturing part. Review of Computer Engineering Research 2016 Vol.3, No.2, pp.41-46 ISSN(e): 2410-9142 ISSN(p): 2412-4281 DOI: 10.18488/journal.76/2016.3.2/76.2.41.46 © 2016 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved.