Reliability evaluation for a waste-reduction parallel-line manufacturing system

Reworking in a manufacturing system is usually an environment-friendly way to eliminate waste during producing. This paper develops a performance evaluation procedure for the parallel-line manufacturing system with different station failure rates. Considering reworking actions, we propose a graphical-based methodology to model the manufacturing system as a stochastic-flow network. First, a transformation technique is utilized to build the manufacturing system as a manufacturing network. Second, a simple algorithm integrating decomposition technique is proposed to generate the minimal capacity vectors that stations should provide to satisfy the given demand. We evaluate the probability that the manufacturing network can meet the demand in terms of the minimal capacity vectors, where the probability is referred to as the system reliability. A footwear manufacturing system is utilized to demonstrate the performance evaluation procedure. A further decision making issue is discussed based on the derived system reliability for achieving higher demand satisfaction and less waste.