Structural-vulnerability assessment of reconfigurable manufacturing system based on universal generating function

Guibing Gao, Junshen Wang, Wenhui Yue and Wenchu Ou

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2020, vol. 203, issue C

Abstract: Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) must be accurately designed in enterprises as it is subjected to many types of disturbances. Modeling the direct impact of each type of disturbance on RMSs and analyzing their structural-level vulnerabilities is significant for operating and optimizing RMSs. In this study, the structural vulnerability of RMSs was evaluated based on the principle of entropy and a Markov model. The proposed approach includes (a) a multistate Markov transfer equation of the manufacturing unit, (b) a method for analyzing the state and calculating the brittleness entropy of manufacturing units, (c) a method for identifying the impact of the status and capacity of a buffer on the structural vulnerability, (d) an efficient state simplification technique for RMSs based on the universal generating function (UGF) method, and (e) a quantitative assessment of the structural vulnerability. Moreover, the proposed approach was used to evaluate the structural vulnerability based on pertinent-vulnerability analyses with a cartoon box production line as an example. The results show that (a) the units connected in series are more vulnerable and that the state of the unit affects the system vulnerability, (b) the buffers reduce the system vulnerability, and (c) the UGF method significantly improves the efficiency of the vulnerability evaluation.

Keywords: Reconfigurable manufacturing systems; Vulnerability; Brittleness entropy; Universal generating function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:203:y:2020:i:c:s0951832020306025

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2020.107101

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