Performance analysis of synchronous production lines

In synchronous production lines, the transfer of all parts in the line takes place simultaneously. If one workstation breaks down, the whole line will be shut down for repair. The authors consider modeling the performance of such lines with random line stoppages, scrapping of parts, and a limited number of operators available for clearing workstations. An analytical model is proposed for this purpose. In the single operator case, the model is free of any distributional assumptions. For the multiple operator case, an exponential assumption is required for an exact analysis, but simple performance bounds are derived for the general case. Some numerical examples are presented