OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF A GENERALIZED CONVEYOR-SERVICED PRODUCTION STATION - FIXED AND REMOVAL ITEM CASES

This paper treats an approach to the optimal design of the conveyor sy stem such that arrival/service times vary in a probabilistic manner. T he single station model here considered is both cases of a single gene ralized conveyor-serviced production station (generalized CSPS) by Mat sui (1993), i.e., fixed item case (FIC) and removal item case (RIC). A methodology to design simultaneously both cycle (mean-interarrival) t ime and buffers is proposed, and the two-step method and the Complex-t ype method for FIC and RIG, respectively, are given and discussed nume rically. In addition, by use of the proposed methods the effectiveness of the look-ahead time are included. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.