Reliability analysis for an apparel manufacturing system applying fuzzy multistate network

This paper addresses the reliability analysis for a real‐world apparel manufacturing system by using fuzzy mathematics. The studied apparel manufacturing system is a precise handicraft profession which involves a great amount of labor‐intensive processes. To consider human performance, the apparel manufacturing system is constructed as a fuzzy multistate network, termed apparel manufacturing network (AMN). The workload state of a workstation in the AMN is defined by three fuzzy membership functions: ‘under‐normal‐workload’, ‘normal‐workload’, and ‘over‐normal‐workload’. Hence, the workload of a workstation is fuzzy multistate and the workstation‐reliability is measured by three fuzzy membership functions. Subsequently, the system reliability is evaluated in terms of all workstation‐reliabilities, and is derived by fuzzy intersection. The reliability analysis can help the production manager to understand the demand satisfaction of the AMN.