Machines Setup Reduction in Lean Manufacturing Environment

We aim to minimize of Total Idle Time for Tool Change (TITTC) in machines equipped with rotating tool magazines and un-buffered tool chain. The subject of this work consists in the optimization of TITTC that is the sum of the tool setup time and tool change time. The problem consists in determining the optimal tool configuration for each part type considering the transition between the current part type and the next one. We propose a Genetic Algorithm to solve the problem. A numerical real test study is performed in order to investigate the problem. We proposed different frameworks to evaluate the proposed approach advantages. First, we reduce TITTC considering the transition between the current part type production and the next one. Finally, we discuss the variation of the part program sequence, according to precedencies. Results show important time saving can be obtained with the proposed approach.