Performance analysis of scheduling policies in re-entrant manufacturing systems

Re-entrant lines are a class of non-traditional queueing network models that are congenial for the modeling of manufacturing systems with distinct multiple visits to work centers. Analyzing the performance of scheduling policies in re-entrant lines is a problem of significant research interest. Reentrant lines are non-product form owing to priority scheduling, and all the existing performance studies have used simulation for analysis. In this paper we present an approximate technique for analytical performance prediction of re-entrant lines. The technique is based on MVA (Mean Value Analysis). The running time of the algorithm is linear in the product of the system population and the number of operations, which makes it overwhelmingly efficient compared to simulation. A detailed comparison of performance values obtained through simulation and the proposed technique shows that the analytical estimates are quite accurate.