Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 602094, 26 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/602094
Research Article

Performance Analysis of a Manufacturing Line Operated under Optimal Surplus-Based Production Control

K. K. Starkov,1 V. Feoktistova,2 A. Y. Pogromsky,1 A. Matveev,2 and J. E. Rooda1

1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612 AZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2Department of Mathematics and Mechanics, Saint Petersburg University, Universitetskii 28, Petrodvoretz, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia

Received 24 September 2011; Accepted 14 January 2012

Academic Editor: Wei-Chiang Hong

Copyright © 2012 K. K. Starkov et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

We examine optimality and performance of a tandem manufacturing line driven by a surplus-based decentralized production control strategy. The main objective of this type of production strategies is to guarantee that the cumulative number of produced products follows the cumulative production demand on the output of the given network. The basic idea of surplus-based control strategy is presented for the case of one manufacturing machine. We prove that this strategy is optimal. Then, a flow model of a line composed of arbitrarily many machines with bounded buffers is analyzed. We prove that the surplus-based production control enables this network to efficiently follow the product demand and establish the relation between the efficiency in the production tracking error and the intermediate inventory levels of a line. Performance and robustness of the flow model of the closed-loop manufacturing line are illustrated by computer simulations.