Receding horizon control of production systems with aging of equipment

One drinking water production line composed of a set of unreliable equipment is studied. At any given time, it can produce only one type of products. A production flow rate model is adopted to describe the system. Practical receding horizon control policy is used to decompose the difficult control and scheduling problem. Applying the receding horizon control scheme enables us to handle random and unexpected events. The aging of the equipment is considered as a factor affecting the jump rate of the system states. By controlling production rate and selecting setup times, the goal to minimize the overall costs of inventory/shortage, production, and setup over a finite horizon can be achieved.