The tooling system configuration in a new manufacturing system architecture

A new manufacturing system architecture, called Mod Flex Prod (MFP), has been recently proposed to match the balance between productivity and flexibility required by suppliers of components for the automotive industry. Among the relevant issues that cause the new architecture to be more profitable than transfer lines and flexible manufacturing systems, tooling has been shown to have an important role. Starting from this result, this paper deepens the advantages in tooling attainable with the new architecture. In particular, it presents a new approach for configuring the tooling system (i.e. selecting the number of tool copies for each tool type) which takes into account that tool copies can be required by the machines to perform operations, by the tool carrier to transport tools within the system and by the tool room when inserts have to be reconditioned. With reference to a real case study, the new approach allows one to assess that tooling investment can be reduced by about 20% if the new architecture replaces traditional flexible manufacturing systems.