Predictive models for performance evaluation of serial production lines

Abstract

An efficient predictive model is proposed for analysing the throughput rate of balanced serial production lines where all stations are identical and buffers between stations have the same capacity. The predictive model is based on the simulation data. The experimental design and analysis technique is used to conduct the simulation experiments and the regression analysis method is used to build the predictive model. The model can be applied to a wide range of values in terms of the coefficient of variation of processing times at stations, the buffer size between stations and the number of stations in a system. Comparisons are made with simulation results and previous works. The model can also be extended to account for situations where different stations have different coefficients of variation of processing times.