Analytic modeling of the unreliable buffer in the serial transfer line

In modern automated production lines, it is common to connect pairs of machines by means of accumulating conveyors in order to provide storage and buffering between processing stations. Since conveyors are mechanical devices, they are prone to failure. Previous research in analytic modeling of the serial transfer line has assumed that buffers are completely reliable. The authors introduce the concept of the unreliable buffer, and produce a model of the serial transfer line incorporating this new concept. They provide a decomposition solution for the general serial line with unreliable buffers, and give some preliminary numerical results of an application of this method