Groupe d’études et de recherche en analyse des décisions

# A Decomposition Method for the Performance Evaluation of Production Lineswith Random Processing Times, Multiple Failure Modes and Finite Buffer Capacity

## Tullio Tolio

The presentation deals with a decomposition method for the performance evaluation of production lines with exponential processing times, multiple failure modes and finite buffer capacity. The key feature of the proposed method is the ability to model machines subject to different types of failures, each failure mode being characterized by exponentially distributed time to failure and time to repair. This feature can be very useful in the analysis of real systems in which machines fail in different ways and take different times to be repaired. In addition, being the method based on the approximation of the behaviour of the $$K$$ machine transfer line by the behaviour of $$K-1$$ two-machine lines (building blocks), the possibility to consider multiple failure modes for each machines allows to separate local failure modes from remote failure modes in each building block in which the line is decomposed. While local failures are directly connected with the reliability of the machines of the original line, remote failures are introduced to take into account blocking and starvation phenomena.