A simulation optimization based control policy for failure prone one-machine,two-product manufacturing systems

This paper presents the optimal flow control for a one-machine, two-product manufacturing system subject to random failures and repairs. The machine capacity process is assumed to be a finite state Markov chain. The problem is to choose the production rates so as to minimize the expected discounted cost of inventory/backlog over an infinite horizon. We first show that for constant demand rates and exponential failure and repair time distributions of the machine, the hedging point policy is optimal. Next, the hedging point policy is extended to non-exponential failure and repair time distributions models. The structure of the hedging point policy is parameterized by two factors representing the thresholds of involved products. With such a policy, simulation experiments are coupled with experimental design and response surface methodology to estimate the optimal control policy. Our results reveal that the hedging point policy is also applicable to a wide variety of complex problems (i.e. non-exponential failure and repair time distributions) where analytical solutions may not be easily obtained.     

Stohastic optimal production control problem with corrective maintenance

We consider a production control problem in a manufacturing system with failure-prone machines and a constant demand rate. The objective is to minimise a discounted inventory holding and backlog cost over an infinite planning horizon. The availability of the machines is improved through a corrective maintenance strategy. The decision variables are the production and the machine repair rates, which influence the inventory levels and the system capacity, respectively. It is shown that, for constant demand rates and exponential failure and repair times distributions of the machines, the hedging point policy is optimal. Such a policy is modified herein and parameterised by factors representing the thresholds of involved products and switching inventory levels for corrective maintenance. With the obtained policy, simulation experiments are combined to experimental design and response surface methodology to estimate the optimal production and corrective maintenance policies, respectively. The usefulness of the proposed approach is illustrated through a numerical example.     

Production control of a pull system with production and demanduncertainty

We consider a continuous material-flow manufacturing system with an unreliable production system and a variable demand source which switches randomly between zero and a maximum level. The failure and repair times of the production system and the switching times of the demand source are assumed to be exponentially distributed random variables. The optimal production flow control policy that minimizes the expected average inventory carrying and backlog costs is characterized as a double-hedging policy. The optimal hedging levels are determined analytically by minimizing the closed-form expression of the cost function. We investigate two approximate single hedging policies. It is empirically shown that an approximate policy that uses a single hedging level which is the sum of a production uncertainty term and a demand uncertainty term gives accurate results for the expected average cost     

具有不确定需求的混杂系统的生产与维修控制

针对不可靠生产环境, 在需求不确定并且有可能存在需求大于生产的一般性情况下, 探讨了系统生产与维修的控制问题, 提出了一种考虑追加生产能力的具有较强即时动态特性的复合三阈值控制策略. 通过将有限时域上的问题分解到无限时域上的简化方法, 在给出了相应阈值求解方法的同时, 也建议了一种近似最优的复合单阈值控制策略. 仿真结果说明及验证了各控制策略及方法.     

Scheduling and control of failure prone systems with demand uncertainty and job overlaps

Given that the overlapping of jobs is permitted, the paper studies the scheduling and control of failure prone production systems,i, e.so-called settings with demand uncertainty and job overlaps. Because a variable demand resource is revolved in the production and corrective maintenance control problems of the system, which switched randomly between zero and a maximum level, it is difficult to obtain the analytical solutions of the optimal single hedging point policy. An asymptotic optimal scheduling policy is presented and a double hedging point policy is offered to control simultaneously the production rate and the corrective maintenance rate of the system. The corresponding analytical solutions and approximate solutions are obtained. Considering the relationship of production, corrective maintenance and demand variable, an approximate optimal single hedging point control policy is proposed. Numerical results are presented.     

Optimality of hedging point policies in the production control offailure prone manufacturing systems

We study the necessary and sufficient conditions for the optimality of the hedging point policy for production systems in which the failure rate of machines depends on the rate of production. We focus on a one machine one part-type and infinite horizon discounted cost problem. It is shown that when the failure rate is independent of the rate of production and a constant, the hedging point policy is provably optimal. The main result of this paper is to show that the linearity of the failure rate function is both necessary and sufficient for the optimality of the hedging point policy     

Production control of a manufacturing system with multiple machinestates

The production control of a single-product manufacturing system with arbitrary number of machine states (failure modes) is discussed. The objective is to find a production policy that would meet the demand for the product with minimum average inventory or backlog cost. The optimal production policy has a special structure and is called a hedging-point policy. If the hedging points are known, the optimal production rate is readily specified. Assuming a set of tentative hedging points, the simple structure of the optimal policy is utilized to find the steady-state probability distribution of the surplus (inventory or backlog). Once this function is determined, the average surplus cost is easily calculated in terms of the values of the hedging points. The average cost is then minimized to find the optimum hedging points     

Maintenance scheduling and production control of multiple-machine manufacturing systems

This paper deals with the production and preventive maintenance control problem for a multiple-machine manufacturing system. The objective of such a problem is to find the production and preventive maintenance rates for the machines so as to minimize the total cost of inventory/backlog, repair and preventive maintenance. A two-level hierarchical control model is presented, and the structure of the control policy for both identical and non-identical manufacturing systems is described using parameters, referred to here as input factors. By combining analytical formalism with simulation-based statistical tools such as experimental design and response surface methodology, an approximation of the optimal control policies and values of input factors are determined. The results obtained extend those available in existing literature to cover non-identical machine manufacturing systems. A numerical example and a sensitivity analysis are presented in order to illustrate the robustness of the proposed approach. The extension of the proposed production and preventive maintenance policies to cover large systems (multiple machines, multiple products) is discussed.     

The queueing equivalence to a manufacturing system with failures

The authors consider optimal production rate control in a failure prone manufacturing system. It is well known that the hedging point policy is the optimum controller for such a system. They show that under the hedging point policy the system can be treated as an M/M/1 queue. Therefore, existing results in queuing theory can be readily applied to obtaining the steady-state probability density function of the production surplus, based on which the optimal hedging point policy can be computed. To a large extent, the approach is based on sample path analysis. It not only provides an alternative way to solve the problem but also reveals some interesting insights     

Control of manufacturing systems with a two-value, production-dependent failure rate

In this paper we consider a failure prone, single machine, single part-type, limited inventory, manufacturing system subject to a non-homogeneous Markov failure/repair process with the failure rate depending on the production rate through a two-value function. The problem is to minimize a cost function which includes a penalty for waiting customers. We derive and prove the optimality of a policy which depends on a threshold but is not the so-called hedging point policy, optimal for the Markov homogeneous case.     

Optimal hedging point control for a failure-prone manufacturing system

This paper considers a manufacturing system with multiple operational modes producing one part type. The part processing time at each operational mode is exponentially distributed and its rate is controllable. The demand arrival is random and described by a Poisson process. By minimizing an infinite-horizon discounted expected cost function, the optimal service rate control is derived. It is proved that the optimal policy is of a hedging point structure by examining the properties of the optimal cost function such as convexity, monotonicity and asymptotic behaviours. The hedging points at different operational modes can be ordered according to their production capacities. The relationships of the hedging points with some system parameters are presented. These structural properties of the optimal control policy are helpful in finding simple and realistic suboptimal policies for practical manufacturing systems. A numerical example is given to demonstrate our results.     

不完全柔性制造系统的最优控制

考虑具有随机需求的不完全柔性制造系统的最优控制，系统在各种产品间的切换时间是不可忽略的。运用马尔可夫最优决策过程归纳方法，导出机器服务率的最优控制策略。通过分析最优值函数的性质，证明最优策略具有简单的阈值结构，从而可得到次优生产策略--阈值控制策略。     

Computational aspects of an extended EMQ model with variable production rate

The paper considers a generalized economic manufacturing quantity (EMQ) model with stochastic machine breakdown and repair in which the time to machine failure, corrective and preventive repair times are all assumed to be random variables. The model is formulated under general failure and general repair time distributions, treating the machine production rate (speed) as a decision variable. As the stress condition of the machine changes with the production rate, the failure rate is assumed to be dependent on the production rate. The model is further extended to the case where certain safety stocks are hold in inventory to protect against possible stockout during machine repair. The solution procedure and computational algorithms of the associated constrained optimization problems are provided. Numerical examples are taken to determine the optimal production policies by the proposed algorithms and examine the sensitivity of the model parameters.Several economic manufacturing quantity (EMQ) models for unreliable manufacturing systems have been developed in the literature even for general failure and general repair (corrective) time distributions. In these studies, preventive repair has not been considered in a general way and efforts have been made to derive the production control and maintenance policy for inflexible manufacturing systems, where the machine capacity is pre-determined. The purpose of this article is to formulate a generalized EMQ model for a flexible unreliable manufacturing system in which (i) the time to machine failure and repair (corrective and preventive) times follow general probability distributions and (ii) the machine failure rate is dependent on the production rate. Consideration of a variable production rate makes the model hard to analyze completely. So, attempt has also been made to get into its computational aspects by developing solution algorithms.     

On the ordering of optimal hedging points in a class ofmanufacturing flow control models

The optimal flow control policy of a single-product unreliable manufacturing system that must meet a constant demand rate is known to be a threshold type policy: safety production surplus levels called hedging points (thresholds) are associated with each discrete stochastic capacity state of the system and serve to protect the production process from uncertainty in future capacity availability. This correspondence extends and generalizes previous results on the ordering of optimal hedging points. The authors' method is based on examining special properties of the Bellman optimality conditions of the underlying stochastic control problem     

预防阈值控制策略及其实现

对机器故障为一般概率分布的不可靠制造系统,提出一种预防阈值控制策略和实现这一控制策略的参数优化方法.应用扰动分析法得到性能指标对控制参数的灵敏度估计,并证明了估计的无偏性,又利用随机逼近技术优化控制参数.仿真结果验证了控制策略的有效性.     

Analytical results for the performance and the control of stochastic flow systems

Design and control problems of failure-prone production lines are explored by means of simple mathematical models. The fluctuations of the performances are introduced via random environments which are modelled by non-Markovian alternating renewal processes. The production output can either be discrete or continuous processes. For these modelling frameworks, we calculate explicitly the average and the variance of the following quantities: (1) the cumulate production output, (2) the random time needed to complete a given production batch and (3) the output of a buffered production dipole. Finally, the optimal control of a single failure prone machine which delivers a single part type is considered. The demand rate is taken to be constant. Deviations of the production output from the demand are penalized by a convex cost function. The operating states of the machine are again modelled by a non-Markovian alternating process. Under the assumption that a hedging point policy is optimal, we calculate explicitly the position of this hedging stock as a function of the coefficient of variation of the time to failure.     

Further properties of optimal hedging points in a class ofmanufacturing systems

For single-part-type manufacturing systems with homogeneous irreducible Markov machine failure rates, it is known that simple feedback control policies, called hedging point policies, are optimal, and the stationary probability distribution of the part surplus can be obtained analytically for given tentative values of hedging points. In this paper, the authors extend previous work on the ordering of optimal hedging points, and some better results are obtained     

A Tractable Class of Maximal Hedging Policies in Multi-Part Manufacturing Systems

The flow control problem in multi-part failure prone manufacturing systems is considered. While computationnaly attractive, the near optimal controllers of Caramanis and Sharifnia, suffer from the drawback that the production capacity set must be approximated via a very restricted set of inscribed hypercubes, namely those for which a componentwise feasibility requirement is satisfied. Also, due to the completely decoupled nature of production along each component, utilization of the restricted capacity set is suboptimal. A class of capacity set incribed hypercube policies called simple maximal hedging (SMH) policies is introduced. In SMH policies production levels along the various components of the capacity set are coupled, the componentwise feasibility requirement is lifted, and there is no underutilization of production capacity if needed. In a p part types manufacturing system, for partwise additive cost functionals, it is shown that performance evaluation of a given SMH policy reduces to the analysis of p decoupled (fictitious) semi-Markovian machines. The machines are Markovianized via first passage-time analysis and a Padé approximants technique. Numerical optimization over the class of SMH policies in a sample manufacturing system indicates that their performance can come close to that of the optimal control.     

Robust production and maintenance planning in stochasticmanufacturing systems

In this paper the authors consider a preventive maintenance and production model of a flexible manufacturing system with machines that are subject to breakdown and repair. The preventive maintenance can be used to reduce the machine failure rates and improve the productivity of the system. The control variables are the rate of maintenance and the rate of production; the objective is to choose a control process that optimizes a robust cost of inventory/shortage, production, and maintenance. The value function is shown to be locally Lipschitz and to satisfy a Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equation. A sufficient condition for optimal control is obtained. Finally, an algorithm is given for solving the optimal control problem numerically