A practical model of Heineken's bottle filling line with dependent failures

This article describes a mass balance production line model based on constant machine rates, fixed finite buffer size and stochastic failure and repair behavior. Failure and repair processes need not be exponential and need not be independent. The model is easy to initialize with field data and we report favorable results from a validation exercise at Heineken Brewery. This article presents a new diagnostic for distance to infinite buffer equilibrium and a new test for independence of failure–repair processes is derived. It is shown that the stochastic fluctuations in a typical line are large, and machine unreliability can perturb the line's design.