Title :
A system-theoretic property of serial production lines: improvability
Author :
Jacobs, David ; Meerkov, Semyon M.
Author_Institution :
Ford Motor Co., Ypsilanti, MI, USA
Abstract :
A production system is called improvable if the limited resources involved in its operation can be redistributed so that a performance measure is improved. In this paper, the property of improvability is analyzed for the case of a particular system-the serial production line. Improvability of the production rate with respect to the workforce and work-in-process distribution is analyzed, appropriate indicators of improvability are derived, and their utilization in the process of continuous improvement is discussed. It is shown, in particular, that in a well designed system each buffer is, on the average, half full, and each intermediate machine has equal frequencies of blockages and starvations
Keywords :
performance evaluation; production control; reliability; system theory; Bernoulli reliability; blockages; buffer; improvability; performance measure; production control; production rate; production system; recursive procedure; serial production lines; system theory; work-in-process distribution; workforce; Continuous improvement; Continuous production; Control systems; Controllability; Frequency; Jacobian matrices; Manufacturing; Observability; Production systems; Textiles;
Conference_Titel :
Decision and Control, 1993., Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Antonio, TX
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1298-8
DOI :
10.1109/CDC.1993.325812
