Fuzzy methods for analysing fuzzy production environment

Very recently, in production management research literature, the necessity to extend production systems analysis techniques, such as queue theory, Mea n Value Analysis (MVA) and discrete simulation, to Fuzzy Production Environ ments, i.e. to those production situations in which data are vague, has eme rged. Fuzzy set theory is a powerful tool to model vagueness and, therefore , fuzzy mathematics can be used to extend classical production system analy sis techniques. This paper proposes a methodology based on fuzzy relation a lgebra to extend classical MVA and discrete event simulation. (C) 1998 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.