A QUEUING NETWORK MODEL OF A SINGLE-OPERATOR MANUFACTURING WORKCELL WITH MACHINE OPERATOR INTERFERENCE/

We present an analytical approach to evaluate the performance of a man ufacturing workcell tended by a single operator when operator-induced machine interference occurs. Each part must be processed at every work station in the workcell. The fact that one or more machines can reques t an operator service while the operator is busy at another machine in duces machine interference. If the reduction of the workcell's capacit y due to this interference becomes too great, then the customer demand may not be satisfied. Our approach determines quickly whether the wor kcell can meet a required demand under its current configuration and o perating parameters. We do this by modeling the workcell as two intera cting queuing networks: an open part/machine network, and a closed mac hine/operator network. In the open network, parts arrive in batches of a fixed size for each part type, but with exponentially distributed i nterarrival times between parts. In both networks, service times follo w general distributions that are characterized by their first two mome nts.