A fluid model for systems with random disruptions

Motivated by modeling manufacturing systems in which job arrivals and processing times are essentially deterministic, but the environment is typically random, the authors develop a fluid model with random disruptions. The quality and relevance of such a model are supported by the following facts which they establish in this study. The fluid model is more susceptible to analysis: Its (dynamical) sample paths are continuous and piecewise linear, and its stationary behavior can be studied using standard approaches in random walk; the model is a limit of corresponding queueing systems with random disruptions that are usually difficult to analyze; there exist pathwise bounds between the fluid model and D/D/1 queues with random disruptions, and the bounds are simple and tight.