Asymptotically Reliable Serial Production Lines: Analysis, Synthesis and a Case Study

Abstract

This paper presents a model of asymptotically reliable serial production lines and develops a theory for its ana.lysis and synthesis along with a case study of a specific application. As far as the a.nalysis is concerned, a complete asymptotic theory is developed for calculation of the average production rate a.nd steady state buffer occupancy. As far as the synthesis is concerned, a new method of optimal design, referred to as dynamic balancing, is derived and applied to specific synthesis problems. As for the case study, the paper gives the results of the performance analysis of a. pa.int shop operation in a modern automobile assembly plant and shows that the difference between the actual and theoretical data is within 3%. Improvement measures, developed on the basis of the theory presented, brought about 11% increase in the pa.int shop production rate.