Autonomated inspection policy for smart factory—an improved approach

Abstract

The proposed model focuses on an imperfect production process (IPP) in which, during long-term production, the system may change to an “out-of-control” state from an “in-control” state and produce some imperfect products because of a long production run length. Brand image and industry reputation are affected by product defectiveness. To increase the profit of any industry and improve reputation and brand image, inspection of the production system is required. However, this inspection is subjected to human error, which negatively affects the assessment of production systems. Herein, an error-free inspection is performed with the help of an autonomation policy, in which each product is inspected via a machine instead of a human, facilitating an error-free inspection and converting the production system to a smart production system. Moreover, in reality, product demand cannot always be constant. Therefore, in this model, a selling-price-dependent demand is considered along with a variable production rate to enhance model applicability. Moreover, total system profit is optimized and optimal values for production run time, inspection scheduling, selling price, buffer inventory, and production rate are determined. Finally, for model validation, some numerical examples along with special cases are provided. The concavity of the optimal function is also proven through graphical illustration. The sensitivity of the key parameters of the presented model is explored and the significance is explained.