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Transportation Research Procedia 40 (2019) 1224–1230

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13th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable, Modern and Safe Transport

13th International 2019),
(TRANSCOM Scientific
HighConference on Sustainable,
Tatras, Novy Smokovec –Modern and Safe
Grand Hotel Transport
Bellevue,
(TRANSCOM 2019),Slovak High Tatras, Novy
Republic, Smokovec
May – Grand Hotel Bellevue,
29-31, 2019
Slovak Republic, May 29-31, 2019
The design of manufacturing line configurations with multiagent
The design of manufacturing line configurations with multiagent
logistics system
logistics system a
Vladimír Vavríka*, Milan Gregora, Martin Marschalla, Patrik Grznára, Štefan Mozola
a a a a
Vladimír Vavrík *, Milan Gregor , Martin Marschall , Patrik Grznár , Štefan Mozol
a
University of Žilina, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering, Univerzitná 1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovak Republic
a
University of Žilina, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering, Univerzitná 1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovak Republic

Abstract
Abstract
The beginning of the article defines current issues in manufacturing production lines which are classified into three categories.
The next
beginning
part isofdedicated
the articletodefines currentofissues
the solution these inproblems
manufacturing production
via core lines which
characteristics are classified into
of reconfigurability three application
and their categories.
to
Theparticular
next partproblems of designing
is dedicated and optimization
to the solution of manufacturing
of these problems via core configuration.
characteristicsBased on these characteristics
of reconfigurability and their was created
application
to
an particular
algorithmproblems
for the ofdesign
designing and reconfigurable
of the optimization of manufacturing
manufacturing configuration. Based The
line configuration. on these characteristics
suggested was created
reconfigurable line
an algorithm for
configurations withthe design logistic
multiagent of the system
reconfigurable manufacturing
are verified line configuration.
through simulation The suggested
models. The simulation resultsreconfigurable
are compared withline
the classic design
configurations of the dedicated
with multiagent logistic manufacturing line through
system are verified for eachsimulation
part of the product
models. family. Theresults
The simulation article
areconcludes
compared with
the classic designforofantheapplication
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systems. for an application of these systems for improvement of flexibility and adaptability of current manufacturing
systems.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© 2019 The Authors.
Peer-review Published byof
under responsibility Elsevier B.V. committee of the 13th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable,
the scientific
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 13th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable,
Modern and Safe Transport (TRANSCOM2019).
Modern and
Peer-review Safe
under Transport (TRANSCOM
responsibility of the scientific
2019). committee of the 13th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable,
Modern and Safe Transport (TRANSCOM 2019).
Keywords: reconfigurability; manufacturing lines; simulation; multiagent logistic system
Keywords: reconfigurability; manufacturing lines; simulation; multiagent logistic system

1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Production and assembly lines are currently widely used to produce a wide range of usually more complex products.
Production
However, and assembly
the increasing lines are of
complexity currently widelyisused
the products to produce
a major a wide range
consequence of usually
of problems more
in the complex
design products.
and operation
However, the increasing
of the manufacturing complexity
lines. of the
It can also be products
said thatisthe
a major consequence
increase of problems
in the number in the design
of components and and
theiroperation
possible
of the manufacturing
variations lines.
in the product alsoItsignificantly
can also beaffects
said that
the the increase
overall in the
structure number
of the of components
production system. Asand their possible
a result of these
variations in the product also significantly affects the overall structure of the production system. As a result of these

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +421-41-513-2713; fax: +421-041-513-1501.

* E-mail address:author.
Corresponding vladimir.vavrik@fstroj.uniza.sk
Tel.: +421-41-513-2713; fax: +421-041-513-1501.
E-mail address: vladimir.vavrik@fstroj.uniza.sk
2352-1465 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review©under
2352-1465 responsibility
2018 The of the scientific
Authors. Published committee
by Elsevier B.V. of the 13th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable, Moder n and
Safe Transport
Peer-review (TRANSCOM
under 2019).
responsibility of the scientific committee of the 13th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable, Moder n and
Safe Transport (TRANSCOM 2019).

2352-1465  2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 13th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable, Modern and
Safe Transport (TRANSCOM 2019).
10.1016/j.trpro.2019.07.170
 Vladimír Vavrík et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 40 (2019) 1224–1230 1225
2 Vavrik et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

changes, it is necessary to take into account a number of factors and criteria in the design process itself so that
the optimal result is achieved. There is currently a large number of theoretical methods that deal with the design
and optimization of production and assembly lines with a more complex structure. However, the use of these methods
in real line designing is limited by factors such as the enormous amount of input data, the problem of multiple
objectives, the variability of the variables used, the scheduling and the resulting layout. As a result of the increasing
variation and modularity is the demand for product customization and market globalization, which is currently taking
place. Consequently, companies cannot concentrate solely on more efficient adaptation of manufacturing lines
to complex products, but they must also focus their attention on market requirements. According to Furman (2017)
such manufacturing lines must therefore be able to react more quickly and flexibly to changes in customer demand
and requirements in the short term. What this means is that they must be able to quickly adapt the production layout
to changes in the production portfolio and the size of the volume produced in the shortest possible time.

2. The basic problems of current manufacturing lines

The basic problems of current manufacturing lines, as well as a solution for these problems, are described
in the next section. According to Rekiek (2006) we can divide problems of current manufacturing lines into three
categories:

2.1. Variability of process time

The process time specification is a basic part of design and optimization, where the maximal level of this factor
shouldn't be higher than the value of a cycle time. However, the value of process time depends on many criteria, which
must be taken into consideration. A typical example is increased or decreased process time as a result of machine
breakdowns, comprehensive operations and the level of automatization. In the case of manual assembly lines, the task
time is constant only when workers are qualified and motivated. On the other hand, in the case of more advanced
machines and robots the task time is constant.

2.2. High-level extensiveness of operations scheduling

The extensiveness of operations is a significant problem for scheduling of operations on the machine.
Some operations have been fixed on given stations and no other operation can be added to them. The next problem is
a specific set of operations which must be grouped on the same stations, because it isn´t possible to add or remove
operation in this set. Some of the operations can be executed manually, automatically or by robots, which means that
the designer must consider associative preferences between all operations on the production line. The last issue is
related to the assembly or production of product itself because each product involves the various types of relations
among workplaces. These constraints often cause increment of product price and long delivery time on the market.
Therefore, we must focus on a solution to these problems for design of manufacturing lines.

2.3. The insufficient system responsiveness and low level of flexibility

Traditional manufacturing systems cannot produce a variety of products, with changeable volume and mix,
at the same system. In order to produce new products and accommodate changes in existing products, new functions
must be added to the manufacturing system. The authors of many studies introduce the basic attributes and functions
for future production systems which are able to fulfill these objectives. The basic attribute for future systems is their
responsiveness, where this characteristic enables manufacturing systems to quickly launch new products
on the market. Furthermore, responsibility enables rapidly and cost-effectively react to a change in the market, system
failures and governmental regulations. To achieve this swift reaction, the production system must fulfill the basic
characteristic as scalability, modularity, customization, diagnosability, convertibility, and integrability.
These enabling characteristics are defined for the new paradigm of the manufacturing system. This system was named
as Reconfigurable Manufacturing System and it was defined as a system with changeable structure focused
1226 Vladimír Vavrík et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 40 (2019) 1224–1230
Vavrik et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 3

on a product family. The problems of the current production line were defined in this section, where we defined three
main problems for their design and optimization.

3. Reconfigurability as a tool for problems of manufacturing lines

Reconfigurable production systems are based on six key features, which may not be just the basic pillars
for designing future concepts of these systems. In the short term, it is impossible to completely transform each
production plant and create a completely reconfigurable production system using multiagent logistic systems.
However, the solution can be a gradual transformation of traditional production systems by applying reconfigurability
elements to their current deficiencies. In the following paragraph, we describe the general possibilities of applying the
characteristics of reconfigurability to the described shortcomings of current production systems. The first problem is
the variability of the process time. This problem can be solved through convertibility, modularity, and diagnosability.
Therefore, we should introduce the machine with a modular structure to the systems. If is this done, modular structure
of machine facilitates to adapt their production capacity and function depending on variants of the product. The
machine design must include likewise diagnostic module for revealing of poor product quality and system failures.
The solution to the problem with high-level extensiveness of operations, scheduling is characteristic of customization,
modularity, and integrability. The characteristic of customization enables the design of systems for the production of
part families, rather than for single parts. If we reduce the amount of difference between product variants than we also
reduce the options for system configurations. Ultimately, this issue may help with other problems in the manufacturing
line. The existing problem with the scheduling operation is removed by integrations of modules. The integration of
modules enables to connect each module of systems and create material flow for a family of products. This
characteristic can be solved through multi agent logistic systems. Let us look at the last problem with system
responsiveness and its flexibility. The production lines are designed for the determinate capacity, but the required
capacity can be changed. This problem can be solved using the characteristic of scalability. The scalability enables to
easily modify production capacity by adding or subtracting manufacturing resources. Moreover, we can adjust the
number of required resources and reduce the capital cost of product production. (Medvecká et. al., 2017)
Customizability, diagnosability, integrability, scalability, modularity, and convertibility can therefore be used
in a wide range of applications, but specific solutions to problems are important for today's factories. The following
section therefore deals with the use of the described characteristics in the algorithm for designing the configuration
of the production lines with multiagent logistic system.

3.1. The design of algorithm for reconfigurable manufacturing line

At present, production lines are designed for a particular portfolio of products produced in a predetermined
sequence or sequentially, depending on incoming orders. In both cases, the degree of similarity between the sequence
of the technological and assembly operations of the products produced on the line must be very high. Also, significant
differences in geometry, technology, and materials produced or assembled are a significant complication
for the already established production line. However, if a major design change is required for new products,
the company must re-design certain parts of the line or, if necessary, the entire line. There is a shutdown of the line
section, the purchase of new equipment, a change in the material flow and layout of facilities. However, all of these
consequences have a direct impact on the cost increase and the need for time to process the required order.
In the current global environment, however, only an enterprise that is quick to adapt to new conditions and at the same
time can offer lower prices than its competitors in the market, is competitive.
The aforementioned problems from the change in the line configuration may be partly removed by the following
algorithm (Fig. 1) which takes into account future possible changes in production facilities due to the change
in the portfolio of manufactured products. This algorithm also applies individual basic characteristics to create a new
approach to designing current systems. This approach is divided into two parts where a specific approach to create
a configuration is marked in gray. The white color features the parts of the approach that create a complete approach
to designing an adaptable system that can respond in a timely manner to market changes and customer requirements.
 Vladimír Vavrík et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 40 (2019) 1224–1230 1227
4 Vavrik et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

The overall approach, however, includes a number of methods that are not addressed by the adaptable configuration
problem and are therefore not described in more detail in the article.
The first step towards creating a cost-saving configuration in need of a more frequent change in product portfolio
is the use of customization characteristics. Customization is defined as the creation of a family (group) of products or
manufactured parts that are mutually technologically, structurally or geometrically similar. This approach to product
family formation takes into account the similarity of individual pairs defined by their processing sequence.
The following step in the process is to create a product family processing sequence based on determining criteria such
as the maximum resource utilization time and the upload time defined by the customer. For successively defined
product families, the necessary configurations are calculated based on (indicated by the gray color) of that approach,
depending on their sequencing. The basis for calculating the configuration used to determine the required number
of machines is based on the principle of calculating single model lines.

Fig. 1. Algorithm for creating the configurations of manufacturing lines.

The advantage of this approach is therefore the ability to produce multiple products on one line, which in many
cases reduces the total number of devices needed for identical technological operations. The configuration created
by the stated approach is divided into production steps where each stage performs a particular technological operation
on one or more family products. For each production stage, the number of devices needed is calculated separately,
1228 Vladimír Vavrík et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 40 (2019) 1224–1230
Vavrik et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 5

taking into account the number of products and the volume processed at the given stage. The last part of the calculation
is the calculation of the total number of workspaces of the configuration. The proposed solution is subsequently
verified by computer simulation. From the simulation results obtained, the condition 𝑛𝑛𝑝𝑝 = 𝑛𝑛𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 which compares
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅
the simulation and calculation results, is evaluated. If the production volume (𝑛𝑛𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 ) achieved by the simulation over
a given time (𝑡𝑡𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 ) is the same as the desired volume of production (𝑛𝑛𝑝𝑝 ) the calculated configuration meets the given
condition. However, if the condition does not apply, each coefficient (𝐾𝐾𝑛𝑛𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 ) will increase by the pre-defined increment
𝑝𝑝 = 0,02 within the range of the values specified 〈0; 0,1〉. The configuration thus designed must therefore meet
the required production volume for all products assigned to a particular family. By means of the above approach, it is
possible to partially eliminate the frequent redesign of the line in the rotation of the production of products
and the configuration change can only be solved by overfilling the logistic route. However, if we consider systems
that meet the integrability and modularity characteristics, it would apply that all system devices are interconnected
modules and therefore no significant change in system logistics is necessary.
The next step of the proposed algorithm is to determine the necessary backup of the system in the case of machine
failure. This principle is directly related to the diagnosability characteristics of the reconfigurable manufacturing
systems. The necessary backup of the system is added to the real need of the devices and in the next step,
the availability of resources for the proposed configuration of the particular product family is verified. If the system
has a sufficient number of devices, the configuration is determined for the following product families or for non-
matching products. However, if the system does not have a sufficient number of devices for product family/families
configurations, it is necessary to modify the number of products or the production volume according to the number
of available system resources. When all the algorithm conditions are met, the information about the proposed
configurations and the necessary resources for future lines are sent to the real system configuration project. The
configuration in physical environment is executed by multiagent logistic system. However, in order to confirm the
functionality of the proposed algorithm, it is necessary to compare the calculated system configurations with the
configurations calculated by means of the calculation for the classical production line.

3.2. Simulation experiments and results

As mentioned in the previous section, the proposed approach also includes a computer simulation that serves
to verify each proposed system configuration. However, the proposed configurations calculated using the proposed
procedure are only advantageous if the number of resources required is less than or equal to the sum of the resources
needed for individual single model production lines. This approach is not compared with the design of mixed model
production lines due to a different approach to designing and merging products into common configurations.
The proposed method assumes configuration creation based on common processing technology, so it can be said that
the approach involves merging of multiple individual lines. (Bučková et al., 2017)

The Comparison of the number of machines for two different methods

70

60

50

Dedicated
Count of sources

40 manufacturing
lines

30

Reconfigurable
20 manufacturing
lines

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45
Number of experiment

Fig. 2. The graph with comparison of two methods.

 Vladimír Vavrík et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 40 (2019) 1224–1230 1229
6 Vavrik et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

For the comparison of these approaches, 45 experiments were performed, where for each experiment random data
were generated for three products, where 4 operations with the same technological sequence were assumed for each
product. In each experiment, random operation times and production volumes for each product were generated.
These products were manufactured for a overall time (𝑡𝑡𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 ) . Based on the algorithm described in the previous
paragraph, the number of machines for the common configuration of all products was determined successively until
the specified condition (𝑛𝑛𝑝𝑝 = 𝑛𝑛𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 ) was reached. Subsequently, line configurations for individual products were
recalculated and verified by simulation, where the number of machines for these lines was determined
by the calculation of single model lines. After determining the number of machines per product, the machine
configuration values for each experiment were summed up separately. The comparison of the results of both
approaches is shown in the previous graph in Chyba! Nenašiel sa žiaden zdroj odkazov.. In the graph, it can be seen
that in all experiments performed, the number of machines determined by the proposed algorithm was less than or
equal to the value calculated for single model production lines. It can be said from the results that this approach in
some cases reduces the overall need for machines in the production of several products. The experiment, however,
assumes the same sequence of processing operations and that each product passes through all the stages of the
configuration. Therefore, it is necessary to perform experiments without previous limitations for the resulting
application of the above calculation in the described algorithm.

4. Conclusion

The article introduction describes the problems of current production systems that face a number of challenges
related to the globalized market and the need to customize products. The above-mentioned problems force
manufacturing companies to consider new approaches and solutions in the design and optimization of production
systems. One of the new system concepts that can be the starting point for solving multiple problem areas
are reconfigurable manufacturing systems. The core of this new system concept is the so-called reconfigurability
characteristics that can be used to eliminate the problems of current production systems. Therefore, the solution
of the problems of current production systems can be a gradual implementation of these characteristics into the present
systems. The article deals especially on the application of these characteristics in the area of designing
the configuration of the production system made up of production lines. Finding such new approaches to designing
production and logistic systems can greatly help to reduce total manufacturing costs, increase the customization of
products, and increase overall business efficiency. Industry 4.0's standard approach is, in particular to increase
automation and digitization in enterprises, but in parallel there must be progress in the design and optimization of
production and logistic systems. The article addresses mainly the change in the approach of designing production
lines, which often face the need for a change in the production portfolio. For these lines, there is a frequent need to
change the design of the production line, which results in increased costs. However, the concept of the line design
algorithm is only a partial solution to research into the design of reconfigurable manufacturing lines. This partial
solution can also be applied to current production systems and transformed according to requirements. The next step
will be to adapt this approach to the overall design, which also applies other features of reconfigurable manufacturing
and logistic systems, with the goal of creating a comprehensive, adaptive manufacturing system.

Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by research project Reconfigurable Logistics System for Manufacturing Systems
of the New Generation of Factory of The Future (RLS_FoF), No. APVV-14-0752, co-financed by the Slovak Agency
for R&D Support.

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