Reliability Analysis of a Transfer Line with Machines of Variable Processing Rates
可变生产率的两级串行生产线可靠性分析

The production lines in a manufacturing system are composed of several machines and they can take many different forms with the various combinations of machines. In practice, the machines in a production line have variable processing rates which can be changed according to the practical operation states of the system. From the point of view of reliability, machines usually are fare more reliable when working at a relatively low production rate. Thus proposing a strategy,which can improve both the reliability and the performance of the systems becomes significant. This paper presents a transfer line model in which machines are of variable processing rates. The states of machines, the buffer and the line and the operation mechanism of the systems are studied. As a result, the steady state production rate of the system is obtained in an analytical form based on which the optimization control scheme of the line is discussed.