The optimization control of single conveyor-serviced production station with variable service rate

This paper is concerned with the optimization control of single conveyor-serviced production station (CSPS), which the service rate is variable. In the actual production, service rate adjustment reflects the changes in the intensity of labor in production, and is also one of the effective means to control the system productivity. In order to rationally allocate labor intensity in the production and improve the production efficiency, the CSPS problem is modeled by semi-Markov decision process in which the control variables include look-ahead distance and service rate, and policy iteration algorithm based on performance potential is given. Finally, the simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.