A MIXED DYNAMICS APPROACH FOR LINEAR CORRIDOR POLICIES - A REVISITATION OF DYNAMIC SETUP SCHEDULING AND FLOW-CONTROL IN MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Sharifnia, Caramanis, and Gershwin [1991] introduced a class of polici es for manufacturing systems, called by them linear corridor policies. They proved that their stability can be discussed by the study of a s impler subset of such policies (cone policies). This paper revisits th eir work presenting a different description of the dynamics of the sys tems under study and explores it to device a necessary and sufficient condition for stability, obtained by the strengthening of the assumpti ons in Sharifnia et al. (1991). This condition is shown to be simply t ested (M(-1) greater than or equal to 0) and valid for various realiza tions.