Performance analysis of an assembly station with input from multiple fabrication lines

We develop analytical models for performance evaluation of Fabrication/Asse mbly (F/A) systems. We consider an F/A system that consists of an assembly station with input from K fabrication lines. Each fabrication line consists of one or more fabrication stations. The system is closed with a fixed num ber of items circulating between each fabrication line and the assembly sta tion. We present algorithms to estimate the throughput and mean queue lengt hs of such systems with exponential processing times. We then extend our ap proach to analyze FIA systems with general processing time distributions. N umerical comparisons with simulations demonstrate the accuracy of our appro ach.