Sensitivity analysis for justification of utilising special purpose machine tools in the presence of uncertain parameters

Abstract

Decision-makers in manufacturing area frequently face machine tool selection problem under uncertainty due to competitive market changes. Special purpose machines (SPMs), a relatively new class of reconfigurable machine tools, are used to react quickly to changes. Justification of utilising these machines vs. other machine tools requires a technique to investigate the sources of uncertainties. In this work, sensitivity analysis is utilised to investigate the sources of these uncertainties and errors which may reveal new insights for evaluating a machine tool. An illustrative example is provided to show the sensitivity of parameters on the economic performance of SPMs compared to the other alternatives. The results show that this analysis provides additional information and moves the decision closer to the optimum alternative.

Keywords:

• decision analysis
• machine selection
• uncertainty
• special purpose machine (SPM)
• sensitivity analysis (SA)

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Dr. Greg Maguire for his useful advice on the documentation of this work.