A Petri net model for the design and performance evaluation of flexible production system

A new generic Petri net model is developed for the design and performance evaluation of a flexible production system. The model allows modeling of a production system configuration, determining the optimal Work-In-Process, lead time, throughput, and utilization of each station. The machining sequencing circuit with the largest cycle time determines the bottleneck station. The throughput is bounded by the utilization of this bottleneck station. The maximum throughput with the minimum WIP is formulated as a linear programming problem.