Performance analysis and optimization of serial and cyclic production lines

Abstract

We present a model for serial production lines with unreliable ordinary machines, unreliable quality inspection machines and finite buffers. The model of serial production lines is extended to cyclic production lines with unreliable machines, finite buffers and a fixed number of pallets. We suggest a simple approximation method with an error bound for the throughput analysis of serial and cyclic production lines. Based on the approximation method, we propose an analytic method for the optimal buffer allocation problem to obtain a desired throughput of serial production lines. Also, we analyze the property of the solution for the buffer allocation problem. In addition, we show how the throughput of cyclic production lines depends on the fixed number of pallets and suggest an analytic method to calculate the optimal number of pallets which maximizes the throughput. We prove there exists an absolute optimal number of pallets independent of the machine parameters for arbitrary cyclic production lines. The results of computer simulations show the suggested methods are valid.