Performance evaluation models for single-item periodic pull production systems

Abstract

A number of pull production systems reported in the literature are found to be equivalent to a tandem- queue so that existing accurate tandem-queue approximation methods can be used to evaluate such systems. In this study, we consider developing an exact performance evaluation model for a non-tandem- queue equivalent pull production system using discrete-time Markov processes. It is a periodically con- trolled serial production system in which a single-item is processed at each stage with an exponential processing time in order to satisfy the Poisson finished product demand. The selected performance mea- sures are throughput, inventory levels, machine utilizations and service level of the system. For large systems, which are difficult to evaluate exactly because of large state-spaces involved, we also pro- pose a computationally feasible approximate decomposition technique together with some numerical experimentations.