Inventory policy and magazine reloading schedule optimisation for cutting tools in pipe manufacturing

Abstract

In a steel pipe manufacturing industry, several machining centres are used for different purposes, where tool magazines speed up the tool exchange and machine setup. Early tool replacement incurs unutilised tool lives, leading to additional tool purchase. On the other hand, delays in tool replacement may result in sudden tool failure and machine breakdown. A multiple tool holding facility in a tool magazine provides a good opportunity to reduce the number of magazine reloading. However, an increased magazine size eventually leads to an increase in the inventory and operating cost for the tool magazine. To trade-off between the stated conflicting objectives, a non-linear mixed-integer programming problem is formulated to minimise the total cost for cutting tools. The problem is solved both optimally and heuristically to find an appropriate combination of tool ordering size, magazine size and reload timing. The throughput rate is observed to improve when an optimal size of tool magazine is installed. The sensitivity analyses are done to investigate the influence of different parameter(s) on the optimum solution.

KEYWORDS:

• Tool life
• non-linear programming
• inventory management
• replacement policies
• magazine reloading schedule

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Md Shahriar Jahan Hossain

Md. Shahriar J. Hossain is currently serving as an endowed assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology at Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA. He earned his PhD degree in the industrial engineering area, from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, under a fellowship funded by Louisiana Economic Development Assistantship (EDA) Program. He completed his Bachelor degree and two Master’s degrees, all in industrial engineering. He has 11 years of teaching, research and consultation experience in industrial and mechanical engineering. He has authored or co-authored several journal (including IJPR, IJPE) and conference articles in operations research, supply chain, ergonomics, manufacturing, industrial environment, product design and artificial intelligence. His current research interest includes manufacturing process optimisation, operations research, lean production systems, supply chain management and inventory control. He is a member of ASEE, DSI, IEOM, IISE and Phi Beta Delta honor society.

Bhaba R. Sarker

Bhaba R. Sarker is the Elton G. Yates Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the Louisiana State University. Before joining LSU, he taught at UT-Austin and Texas A&M University. Professor Sarker published more than 170 papers in refereed journals and more than 90 papers in conference proceedings. He won the 2006 David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award from IISE for outstanding research contributions in Industrial Engineering. He has served on the editorial boards of more than 10 journals and is currently on the editorial boards of three journals including International Journal of Production Economics and American Journal of Operations Research. He is a fellow in Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers, USA, and South Asia Institute of Science and Engineering. He is also a member of DSI, INFORMS, POMS and New York Academy of Sciences. He is currently working in the area of optimisation, supply chain logistics, lean production systems and renewable energy.