Optimising production control of a maker–packer system in cigarette manufacture

Many of the current generation of high speed manufacturing machines are fitted with detection systems to monitor the quality of every item produced. Loose end fault and paper damage are two major defects in cigarette manufacturing. It is known that the proportion of defects is related to the cigarette tobacco content. These defects are monitored by a screening variable (tobacco weight) at the making machine and are inspected by an optical device at the packing machine. We investigate the optimal production plan (mean input tobacco weight) and the quality control design (control limits) of a maker–packer production system. The inspection error is considered in the analysis.