Back to Search
Start Over
Analytical Approach to Estimate Efficiency of Series Machines in Production Lines.
- Source :
-
IEEE Transactions on Automation Science & Engineering . Jul2018, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p1027-1040. 14p. - Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Series machines, i.e., machines (which are usually unreliable) arranged in series with no buffering, are pervasive in production systems. In the analysis, design, and optimization of the series-machine system, the efficiency analysis is one of the most fundamental issues. There are not a lot of researches analyzing the efficiency of the series-machine system, and almost all of them assume that the system operates under type-I failure mechanisms (i.e., the breakdown of a machine could make all other series machines forced down) rather than under type-II mechanisms (i.e., the breakdown of a machine does not make any other series machines forced down). The reason that the type-I failure mechanisms are usually assumed in the literature is that the analysis of the series-machine system under type-II mechanisms is much more complex than under type-I mechanisms, although type-II mechanisms are more common in practice. To thoroughly and systematically estimate the efficiency of the series-machine system, in this paper, we propose a unified analytical approach to investigate the efficiency under both type-I and type-II failure mechanisms. Both cases of deterministic and random cycle times are considered. Different from under type-I failure mechanisms, analytical expressions of the efficiency of series-machine systems under type-II failure mechanisms are extremely hard to obtain, and thus, limit bounds of the efficiency are derived and algorithms are developed to calculate its exact value. Results show that the series-machine system under type-II failure mechanisms is more efficient than under type-I mechanisms, which, intuitively making sense, is the reason that type-II mechanisms are more common in the industry. Note to Practitioners—The series-machine system is pervasive in industry and it usually operates under type-II failure mechanisms (i.e., the breakdown of a machine does not make any other series machines forced down). Nevertheless, the existing research on type-II failure mechanisms is very limited. Thus, the efficiency and other performance measures of such systems are, in general, approximately evaluated based on type-I mechanisms (i.e., the breakdown of a machine could make all other series machines forced down). However, the error of this approximation may be large and unacceptable. In this paper, a unified approach is proposed to analyze the efficiency of the series-machine system. Due to the difficulties in deriving closed-form expressions under type-II failure mechanisms, algorithms are developed to calculate the efficiency of the series-machine system. Theoretical results ensure the effectiveness of the algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 15455955
- Volume :
- 15
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- IEEE Transactions on Automation Science & Engineering
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 130457262
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TASE.2017.2702380