Analysis of a general Markovian two-stage continuous-flow production system with a finite buffer

BarIs Tan and Stanley B. Gershwin

International Journal of Production Economics, 2009, vol. 120, issue 2, 327-339

Abstract: Fluid flow models are used in the performance evaluation of production, computer, and telecommunication systems. In order to develop a methodology to analyze general Markovian continuous material flow production systems with two processing stages with an intermediate finite buffer, a general single-buffer fluid flow system is modelled as a continuous time, continuous-discrete state space stochastic process and the steady-state distribution is determined. Various performance measures such as the production rate and the expected buffer level are determined from the steady-state distributions. The flexibility of this methodology allows analysis of a wide range of models by specifying only the transition rates and the flow rates associated with the discrete states of each stage. Therefore, the method is proposed as a tool for performance evaluation of general Markovian continuous-flow systems with a finite buffer. The solution methodology is illustrated by analyzing a production system where each machine has multiple up and down states associated with their quality characteristics.

Keywords: Continuous-flow; systems; Fluid; flow; models; Markovian; production; systems; Level; crossing; analysis; Performance; evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:proeco:v:120:y:2009:i:2:p:327-339

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