Buffer allocation in serial production lines with preventive and corrective maintenance operations

Production machines on a manufacturing line are subject to failures due to wearouts and other random causes. While wearout failures can be avoided by preventive maintenance, random failures are unavoidable and need corrective maintenance. Intermediate buffer storages are introduced to localize the losses caused by equipment stoppages. This paper presents an iterative simulation procedure, based on a discrete mathematical model, to optimize buffer allocation on a multi-stage production line with corrective and preventive maintenance operations