Bi-objective design of sustainable reconfigurable manufacturing systems

Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) rose as advanced production systems able to meet the current market challenges rapidly changing their physical and logical structure. An RMS environment is usually characterized by intelligent machines called Reconfigurable Machine Tools (RMTs), consisting of fixed parts, i.e. the basic modules, and dynamic changeable parts, i.e. the auxiliary modules, which allow performing different tasks. The literature is rich in studies proposing methodologies for RMS design and management optimizing their operative and economic performances. Studies including the environmental sustainability perspective are still limited. To fill this gap, this paper proposes and applies a bi-objective mathematical model for the RMS design and management, optimizing the operative performances from one side, i.e. by minimizing the parts’ and auxiliary modules’ travel time and the RMT reconfiguration time, and the environmental performances from the other side, i.e. by minimizing the energy consumption for the part processing and the RMT reconfiguration. The application of the bi-objective model to an operative industrial case study showcases how to best balance operative and environmental objectives. The selected trade-off point allows a significant improvement of both time and energy performances compared to their worst values, rising as an efficient production system configuration.