Real-Time Performance Analysis of Batch-Based Serial Flexible Production Lines With Geometric Machines

Owing to the environment of current intelligent manufacturing strategies (e.g., “Industry 4.0”, “Advanced Manufacturing Partnership 2.0”, and “Made in China 2025 flexible production is becoming prevalent in modern production systems. Compared to mass production systems, flexible production systems have relatively received less research attention. On the other hand, in flexible production environments, to fabricate the products of multiple types, there sometimes exists a transition to adjust and set up system configuration when the type of processed products is changed. Production runs are separated by the transitions. As a result, batch-based production is widely used in flexible production systems. In this paper, under the framework of batch-based serial flexible production lines with finite buffers and machines obeying the geometric reliability model, we study the problem of real-time performance analysis of such systems. Specifically, for oneand two-machine lines, we study the mathematical model. Exact Markovian analysis is used to derive the closed-form formula for calculating the real-time performances measures, i.e., production rates, consumption rates, work-in-process. Moreover, the distribution, the mean, and the standard deviation of completion time are studied. For longer lines, the preliminary results based on the Monte Carlo simulation are presented.