Modeling Manufacturing Systems

Advanced modeling techniques are a necessary tool in order to design and manage manufacturing systems effectively. This book contains a set of tutorial chapters on topics ranging from aggregate production planning to real time control, including predictive and reactive scheduling, flow management in assembly systems, simulation of robotic cells, design of manufacturing systems under uncertainty and a historical perspective on production management philosophies. The book will be of interest both to researchers and practitioners, including graduate students in Manufacturing Engineering and Operations Research.

Manufacturing models - Assembly lines : reliable serial systems - Transfer lines and general serial systems - Shop scheduling with many products - Flexible manufacturing systems - Machine setup and operation sequencing - Material handling systems - Warehousing : storage and retrieval systems - General manufacturing systems : analytical queueing models - General manufacturing systems : empirical simulation models.

This text presents the practical application of queueing theory results for the design and analysis of manufacturing and production systems. This textbook makes accessible to undergraduates and beginning graduates many of the seemingly esoteric results of queueing theory. In an effort to apply queueing theory to practical problems, there has been considerable research over the previous few decades in developing reasonable approximations of queueing results. This text takes full advantage of these results and indicates how to apply queueing approximations for the analysis of manufacturing systems. Support is provided through the web site http://msma.tamu.edu. Students will have access to the answers of odd numbered problems and instructors will be provided with a full solutions manual, Excel files when needed for homework, and computer programs using Mathematica that can be used to solve homework and develop additional problems or term projects. In this second edition a separate appendix dealing with some of the basic event-driven simulation concepts has been added.

Advanced modeling techniques are a necessary tool in order to design and manage manufacturing systems effectively. This book contains a set of tutorial chapters on topics ranging from aggregate production planning to real time control, including predictive and reactive scheduling, flow management in assembly systems, simulation of robotic cells, design of manufacturing systems under uncertainty and a historical perspective on production management philosophies. The book will be of interest both to researchers and practitioners, including graduate students in Manufacturing Engineering and Operations Research.

Outlining the major issues that have to be addressed in the design and operation of each type of system, this new text explores the stochastic models of a wide range of manufacturing systems. It covers flow lines, job shops, transfer lines, flexible manufacturing systems, flexible assembly systems, cellular systems, and more. For professionals working in the area of manufacturing system modelling.

Manufacturing systems rarely perform exactly as expected and predicted. Unexpected events, such as order changes, equipment failures and product defects, affect the performance of the system and complicate decision-making. This volume is devoted to the development of analytical methods aiming at responding to variability in a way that limits its corrupting effects on system performance. The book includes fifteen novel chapters that mostly focus on the development and analysis of performance evaluation models of manufacturing systems using decomposition-based methods, Markovian and queuing analysis, simulation, and inventory control approaches. They are organized into four distinct sections to reflect their shared viewpoints: factory design, unreliable production lines, queuing network models, production planning and assembly.

This book presents the mathematical models applicable to manufacturing systems management, covering problems from production to real time control. It explores manufacturing systems from the viewpoints of both physical structure and performance measures. Two broad classes of mathematical models are covered in detail: Generative models, which yield a set of decision variables optimizing a performance measure, based on mathematical optimization Evaluative models, which evaluate some performance measures as a function of some predefined decision strategy. Within this class Petri Nets and Queueing Networks are discussed. Advanced Models for Manufacturing Systems Management describes dynamic systems modeling by state equations, a unifying framework for a wide variety of models. The text/reference stresses model building, but it examines model solving as well. Computational techniques are illustrated, such as linear programming, branch and bound methods, and dynamic programming. Particular emphasis is given to the development of heuristic methods from mathematical models. The book provides readers with valuable tools for management and design. The use of descriptive models within an optimization algorithm is considered. Numerous examples illustrate theoretical concepts throughout text. Appendices are given at the end of the book in order to recall fundamentals, such as linear programming and graph theory. Appendices also appear within each chapter. In this way, readers can follow the main reading path without getting involved with details; these appendices can be read at a later time. This textual structure makes this book particularly well suited for self-study. Advanced Models for Manufacturing Systems Management is beneficial reading for both students and practitioners.