Table 2 summarises performance measures appearing in papers. Flowtime related measures have attracted the most attention, followed by tardiness related measures and utilisation related measures.

2.3 Review of  Related Publications

Nof et al. [44] studied the control problem in an FMS. Three rules were considered for part releasing into the empty system, and two rules for part releasing into the loaded system. Two performance measures were employed, which were system utilisation  and  production  rate.  Their  work  showed  that   the

Table 2. Performance  measures  used  in general  FMS scheduling  studies.

and RANDOM. Six performance measures, which are station utilisation, production rate and average throughput time  for each part type, simulation time, total number of parts produced, and total processing time, were used in this study. The effect of transporter speed and capacity on production rate and station utilisation were discussed. It was concluded that the SPT rule was the best rule, as it resulted in higher production, higher utilisation, shorter  throughput time,  and less  congestion  in the system. Neither due-date assignments nor due-date-based measures of performance were employed in the simulation model.

Bell and Bilalis [46] investigated a real FMS consisting of three machines using a digital simulation. Only one decision point was considered in the simulation model. They  explored the effect of three dispatching rules (SIO, LIO, and FIFO) on machine utilisation  and  throughput times.  Due-date-based rule

  and  related  measure  of  performance  were  not  considered  in

Performance Number of Reference  number Period measures publications of publications

Flow-time 36 [4],  [23], [25], 1979–2000

related [27],  [28], [32],

[36],  [44], [46–

48],  [50–56], [58–

63],  [66–69], [71],

[73–77]  [79], [80]

Tardiness or 19 [23],  [27], [28], 1983–2000

tardy  job related [36], [47–49],

[59],  [60], [62],

[70],  [71], [73–

75],  [77], [79–81]

Utilisation 17 [25],  [27], [32], 1979–1995

related [36],  [44], [46],

(including [49–52], [54–57],

system, machine, [60],  [73], [74] station, etc.)

Cost related 6 [23],  [47], [48], 1983–2000

[70],  [74], [81]

Inventory  related 6 [25],  [36], [54], 1981–1995

[59],  [60], [70]

Others 12 [25],  [32], [34], 1981–1995

[36],  [50], [51],