Operational issues in reconfigurable manufacturing systems: exception handling

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) offer capabilities for quick adjustment of production capacity and functionality. In this kind of systems scheduling decisions and exception handling policies are complex since multiple reconfiguration strategies should be considered simultaneously. This paper explores potential of the reconfigurability feature to be a basis for development of new strategies to handle out-of-ordinary events in the production process, in particular maintaining production flow when machine breakdowns occur. Both economic and performance aspects are considered in presented analysis, and supported by discrete event simulations.