Process conditions of a stand-alone machining centre for maximum contribution to profit per unit time

Most existing FMS performance measures assume the existence of some correlation between maximum profit and system performance. In this article the ‘contribution to profit per unit time’ is adopted as a direct measure of system performance. A simple system having one machining centre, for handling n different products is described, which operates under four different production environments. In each case, relationships are developed which enable the scheduler to implement a decision-making procedure that maximizes the contribution to profit per unit time.