This study deals with the case study on the pallet quantity determination problem for the flexible manufacturing system producing 32 different types of aircraft wing ribs which are major structures of an aircraft wings. A Korean company has constructed the WFMS (wing rib flexible manufacturing system) that is composed of several automated equipments such as the 5-axis machining centers, the RGV (rail guided vehicles)s, the AS/RS (automated storage and retrieval system), the loading/unloading stations, and so on. Pallets play a critical role in the WFMS to maintain high system utilization and continuous work flow between 5-axis machining machines and automated material handling devices. The discrete event simulation method is used to evaluate the performance of the WFMS under various pallet mix alternatives for wing rib manufacturing processes. Four performance measures including system utilization, throughput, lead-time and work in process inventory level are investigated to determine the best pallet mix alternative. The best pallet mix identified by the simulation study is adopted in setting up and operating a real Korean aircraft parts manufacturing shop. By comparing the real WFMS’s performances with those of the simulation study, we discussed the cause of performance difference observed and the necessity of developing the CPS (cyber physical system).

1. 서 론
 2. 관련 연구
 3. WFMS의 시뮬레이션 모형
  3.1 제품 및 공정분석
  3.2 시뮬레이션 모델
 4. 시뮬레이션 실험 및 결과 분석
  4.1 팔레트 조합 대안 생성
  4.2 실험설계
 5. 실증 평가
 6. 결 론
 References

• Deok Hyun Kim(Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Gyeongsang National University/Korea Aerospace Industry) | 김덕현
• In Su Lee(Korea Aerospace Industry) | 이인수
• Chun Nam Cha(Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering/Engineering Research Institute, Gyeongsang National University) | 차춘남 Corresponding Author