Optimization of cyclic manufacturing systems with stochastic manufacturing times using event graphs

This paper concerns cyclic manufacturing systems. It assumes that manufacturing times are random variables. The goal is to reach a given productivity while minimizing the number of transportation resources. In terms of Petri net, this problem consists of reaching cycle time while minimizing a linear combination of the markings, the coefficients of this combination being the components of a p-invariant. An approach based on perturbation analysis is proposed to solve this problem. To illustrate this new method, a list of numerical results and an example of application of the flexible manufacturing system are given.