Conveyor-serviced production station (CSPS) model: Look-ahead controls and physics

This paper reviews look-ahead controls for a Conveyor-Serviced Production Station (CSPS) model, clarifies the structure of effective control (operating) policies, and gives a physical theory on look-ahead control and loss system. First, seven operating policies for the CSPS model are analyzed and compared on the mean delay-time. The proposed Reserve-dependent and Sequential Range Policy (RdSRP) is optimal among any stationary policies. Next, the mean number of overflows at CSPS is analytically obtained for the policy SRP, a special case of RdSRP. The linear relation of this and mean delay-time is found, and is generalized by sample path method.