Simulation based throughput assessment of non-homogeneous transfer lines

Abstract

This paper proposes a general simulation model to assess the throughput of non-homogeneous transfer lines. The transfer line has no intermediate buffers between adjacent machines. Machines are subject to random operation dependant failures. The transfer line is dedicated to producing only one product type which can be assimilated to an aggregation of various product types. Due to lack in line balancing, the considered transfer line is non-homogeneous so that its machines have different processing times. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of approximate analytical approaches dealing with non-homogeneous transfer lines. Several production line configurations have been analyzed and statistical tests were carried out to show that approximate approaches generate significant errors and cannot give a good estimate, compared to simulation results, of the throughput of unbuffered, nonhomogeneous transfer lines subject to operation dependant failures.