Analysis of the production variability in multi-stage manufacturing systems

The evaluation of the average performance of manufacturing systems has been widely investigated in the manufacturing system engineering literature. However, there is industrial evidence that production variability due to random disturbances cause the observed production rate to be different from its average value. This paper presents a theory and a methodology to analyze the production rate variability in unreliable manufacturing systems. The dependency of the variance on the system parameters is investigated. The industrial benefits are shown through application of the method to real manufacturing contexts. This analysis paves the way to improved system designs that meet desired service levels.