ABSTRACT MODELING A MODERN MARBLE PROCESSING PLANT BY USING PETRI NET Keser, &Ouml / zge M. Sc., Department of Mining Engineering Supervisor: Prof Dr. NeS&rsquo / e &Ccedil / elebi Co-Supervisor: Prof Dr. Tevfik G&uuml / yag&uuml / ler December 2003, 110 pages All developing countries need sufficient raw material resources to develop and to guarantee their future. Considering Turkish natural resources, marble has a great importance because of its demand on the market, reserve amount and quality. However, some effort is required to improve the existing marble production and processing efficiency. Petri nets (PNs) are the information models that control the flow for concurrent and synchronous systems. In this regard, PN application can be useful. However, its application is limited to the complex systems and no application of PN is available in mining sector. iii In this sense, this study aims to examine the applicability of PN to mining. This study examines the production system in order to optimize the process in case of two different types of marble product orders. Three case studies are applied to examine benefits and difficulties in implementation of PN to a marble processing plant. The study shows that PN can successfully be used as a tool for the optimization of total production time, simulation and modeling of the system. It provides to see the sequence of the processes, their time, remaining time of each transition and optimum total production times. The difficulties of PN implementation are found out as the determination of each path in the reachability graph, matrix representation with large quantity of place, etc.

In this study, we consider a capacity allocation problem in flexible manufacturing systems. We assume time and tool magazine capacities on the Numerical Controlled (NC) machines and limited number of available tools. Our problem is to allocate the available capacity of the NC machines to the required demand of the operations, so as to maximize the total weight of operation assignments. We formulate the problem as a Mixed Integer Linear Program and show that it is NP-hard in the strong sense. We solve the moderate-sized problems optimally by the available Integer Programming software. We also develop Lagrangean relaxation based upper bounds and several heuristic procedures. Our computational results have revealed that the Lagrangean upper bounds are very close to optimal solutions and the heuristic procedures produce near optimal solutions in very small solution times even when the problem sizes are large.

Manufacturing industry has made extensive use of simulation as a means of trying to model the impact of variability on manufacturing system behavior and to explore various ways of coping with change and uncertainty. Simulation helps find optimal solutions to a number of problems at both design and application stages of Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS&rsquo / s) serving to improve the &ldquo / flexibility&rdquo / level The flexibility requirement of FMS necessitates the dissemination of every activity that concerns production, throughout all the levels of a company forcing almost every level of employee face with simulation software, either in terms of preparing models, modifying runs or evaluating results. This problem of inadequate capability of personnel to utilize simulation effectively can be overcome through the design of custom interfaces and integration of simulation software with everyday-use programs. This research mainly focuses on realizing the modeling and simulation of FMS&rsquo / s by the use of the existing system in Middle East Technical University, Mechanical Engineering Department, Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory as a test-bed. Additionally, the means of integration of simulation with auxiliary programs is demonstrated. The models developed throughout the study using ARENA&reg / are used to come up with different scenarios of production. Sample results and decisions about production issues that can be attained through the use of simulation are provided. The described model creation procedures, the generated models, and result assessments are expected to act as a guideline for other simulations regarding FMS&rsquo / s.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1997

Bibliography: leaves 172-184. / xx, 278 leaves : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / An analytical approach to the integrated problems of designing the dynamic cellular manufacturing systems layout concurrently with its material flow (handling) requirements, in such a manner that minimises the material handling within the system. The proposed strategy encourages the design of a dynamic layout to identify simultaneously the machine groups, economical machine distribution, and intracell and intercell layouts. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001?

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität, Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [217]-227).

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Accessibility; CAM; CAD; Integration; Fixture Design. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-109).gh

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 248-265).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-195).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-105). Also available on the Internet.