Performance evaluation models for single-item periodic pull production systems

A number of pull production systems reported in the literature are found to be equivalent to a tandem-queue so that existing accurate tandem-queue approximation methods can be used to evaluate such systems. This study considers developing an exact performance evaluation model for a non-tandem-queue equivalent pull production system using discrete-time Markov processes. It is a periodically controlled serial production system in which a single-item is processed at each stage with an exponential processing time in order to satisfy the Poisson finished product demand. The selected performance measures are throughput, inventory levels, machine utilizations and service level of the system. For large systems, which are difficult to evaluate exactly because of large state-space involved, the study also proposes a computationally feasible approximate decomposition technique together with some numerical experimentations.