Cost minimization for unstable concurrent products in multi-stage production line using queueing analysis

This research and resulting contribution are results of Assumption University of Thailand. The university partially supports financially the publication.Purpose: The paper copes with the queueing theory for evaluating a muti-stage production line process with concurrent goods. The intention of this article is to evaluate the efficiency of products assembly in the production line. Design/Methodology/Approach: To elevate the efficiency of the assembly line it is required to control the performance of individual stations. The arrival process of concurrent products is piled up before flowing to each station. All experiments are based on queueing network analysis. Findings: The performance analysis for unstable concurrent sub-items in the production line is discussed. The proposed analysis is based on the improvement of the total sub-production time by lessening the queue time in each station. Practical implications: The collected data are number of workers, incoming and outgoing sub-products, throughput rate, and individual station processing time. The front loading place unpacks product items into concurrent sub-items by an operator and automatically sorts them by RFID tag or bar code identifiers. Experiments of the work based on simulation are compared and validated with results from real approximation. Originality/Value: It is an alternative improvement to increase the efficiency of the operation in each station with minimum costs.peer-reviewe

Nonlinear Markov Processes in Big Networks

Big networks express various large-scale networks in many practical areas such as computer networks, internet of things, cloud computation, manufacturing systems, transportation networks, and healthcare systems. This paper analyzes such big networks, and applies the mean-field theory and the nonlinear Markov processes to set up a broad class of nonlinear continuous-time block-structured Markov processes, which can be applied to deal with many practical stochastic systems. Firstly, a nonlinear Markov process is derived from a large number of interacting big networks with symmetric interactions, each of which is described as a continuous-time block-structured Markov process. Secondly, some effective algorithms are given for computing the fixed points of the nonlinear Markov process by means of the UL-type RG-factorization. Finally, the Birkhoff center, the Lyapunov functions and the relative entropy are used to analyze stability or metastability of the big network, and several interesting open problems are proposed with detailed interpretation. We believe that the results given in this paper can be useful and effective in the study of big networks.Comment: 28 pages in Special Matrices; 201