Reconfigurable manufacturing system: a systematic bibliometric analysis and future research agenda

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis of reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) articles using VOSviewer to identify their research themes and future research trends and investigate their interconnectivity. This paper also aims to identify prominent authors, publishers, organizations, countries and their collaborations in the RMS domain.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the Scopus database is used to retrieve 454 RMS articles published between 1988 and 2020. These articles are then investigated using VOSviewer to determine their interconnectedness, clusters and citations, as well as to generate a map based on text data. The network visualization diagrams and clusters obtained for documents, authors, sources, organizations and countries are explored to determine the current state and future trends in RMS research.FindingsA bibliometric analysis of selected articles is performed, and current research hotspots in this domain are identified. This work also investigates the current status and future research trends in this domain. The work presented also identifies top researchers, journals, countries and documents in RMS.Practical implicationsThis paper can provide academics, researchers and practitioners with additional research insights. At the same time, the research trends identified here can help to direct research and benefit researchers.Originality/valueThe study is the first attempt to review selected documents in the RMS domain using bibliometric analysis tools, and it presents a method for collecting articles, organizing them and analyzing the data.

Process Planning, Scheduling, and Layout Optimization for Multi-Unit Mass-Customized Products in Sustainable Reconfigurable Manufacturing System

Currently, manufacturers seek to provide customized and sustainable products, requiring flexible manufacturing systems and advanced production management to cope with customization complexity and improve environmental performance. The reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) is expected to provide cost-effective customization in high responsiveness. However, reconfiguration optimization to produce sustainable mass-customized products in RMS is a complex problem requiring multi-criteria decision making. It is related to three problems, process planning, scheduling, and layout optimization, which should be integrated to optimize the RMS performance. This paper aims at integrating the above three problems and developing an effective approach to solving them concurrently. It formulates a multi-objective mathematical model simultaneously optimizing process planning, job-shop scheduling, and open-field layout problem to improve RMS sustainability. The penalty for product tardiness, the total manufacturing cost, the hazardous waste, and the greenhouse gases emissions are minimized. Economic and environmental indicators are defined to modify the Pareto efficiency when searching the Pareto-optimal solutions. Exact Pareto-optimal solutions are obtained by brute-force search and compared with those of the non-environmental indicator model. NSGA-III is adopted to obtain the approximate Pareto-optimal solutions in high effectiveness and efficiency. A small numerical example is applied to validate the mathematical model and resolution methods.

Reconfigurable manufacturing system: a systematic review, meta-analysis and future research directions

Purpose Uncertainties in manufacturing and changing customer demands force manufacturing industries to adopt new strategies, such as the reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS). To improve the implementation and performance of RMS, it is necessary to review the available literature and identify future trends in this field. This paper aims to analyze existing literature and to see trends in RMS-related research. Design/methodology/approach The systematic literature review and analysis of RMS-related research papers from 1999 to 2020 is carried out in this literature. The selected studies are analyzed based on the year of publication, journals, publishers, active authors, research design, countries, enablers, barriers, performance evaluation parameters and universities. Findings After the analysis of selected RMS-related research papers, the top countries, universities, journals, publishers and authors are identified in this domain. Research themes and trends in research are identified in this study. Besides, it has been noted that there is a need for further research in this domain and for the creation of a generalized framework that can guide researchers and practitioners to increase RMS adoption. Practical implications Research insights, guidance and observations from this paper are provided to RMS-related researchers and practitioners. Important research gaps are identified in this study, which can provide direction for future research and trends in RMS research. Originality/value The study presented focuses mainly on the method of collecting, organizing, capturing, interpreting and analyzing data to provide more insight into RMS to identify future trends in research.

A Hybrid Framework to Prioritize the Performance Metrics of Reconfigurable Manufacturing System: An Integrated Fuzzy AHP–TOPSIS approach

The Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) meets the challenges of dynamic customer demands, technological advancements, and reducing lead time, among other things. It is necessary to have a framework that can assist in increasing RMS adoption as well as evaluating its performance. The present study seeks to develop a hybrid framework for prioritizing performance metrics of RMS that helps the designers of the manufacturing system in decision making. A total of 31 indicators for RMS are identified through a literature survey, the weight of each indicator is computed by Fuzzy-AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method and the Fuzzy-TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method is used to prioritize 22 performance metrics of RMS. The findings of the presented study reveal that among all the main indicators; smart factory indicators have the highest weightage followed by strategy and policy indicators. The prioritization of performance metrics shows that lead time, reconfiguration time, and product flexibility are the top three most important performance metrics for RMS. The feasibility and appropriateness of the framework is tested through a case application of the manufacturing organization. The framework developed has a high capacity to assist designers during the adoption of the RMS and will facilitate the identification of the relevant parameters. Authors believe that researchers and professionals will find this study as a ready reference for stepwise adoption of RMS. The study presented here is likely the first to present a hybrid framework in which a set of indicators and performance metrics are presented together.