Performance evaluation of manufacturing systems: a spreadsheet model

In this paper, we describe the spreadsheet modeling of manufacturing systems which are represented by multi-server and multi-product open networks. The spreadsheet software is characterized by easy data manipulation, on-screen numerical and visual feedback, fast calculation (what-if analysis), and its availability. So far, most spreadsheet models of this type have been used to solve static and deterministic problems in manufacturing systems, ignoring most of the uncertainties. We propose here that a spreadsheet can be implemented for capturing not only static features but also stochastic behaviour of manufacturing systems. The experiments show that the results from the spreadsheet model are reasonably close to those from the other existing approaches. The proposed spreadsheet model could be applied by an engineer to the modeling of manufacturing systems, especially for a first-cut design stage, utilizing his/her own spreadsheet software.