Control policy simulation based on machine age in a failure prone one-machine, one-product manufacturing system

This paper deals with the production planning problem of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). This problem is within the class of problems which are usually faced during the life cycle of FMS. There are basically two approaches used to solve this problem: analytical and simulation. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology to determine the control policy for a given FMS by using the combination of both analytical and simulation approaches. The production rate control of a one-machine one-product system is presented to illustrate our approach. The contribution of the analytical part of the proposed model consists of generating a near-optimal controller based on the concept of an age-dependent hedging point policy. This sub-optimal policy is used as input of the simulation part and the improvement of operating conditions (control policies) achieved with a constant demand rate. The proposed model includes also a stochastic demand and lot sizes in production which consists of similar products batches with bulk arrivals. The robustness of the controller against both demand rates and production types has been validated.