Performance evaluation for general queueing networks in manufacturing systems: Characterizing the trade-off between queue time and utilization

Performance evaluation plays a key role in manufacturing system design and productivity improvement. Characterizing performance objectively is the first step. Inspired by the underlying structure of tandem queues, we have derived an approximate model to characterize the system performance. The model decomposes system queue time and variability into bottleneck and non-bottleneck parts while capturing the dependence among workstations. Compared the new model with prior approaches, the new model not only is more accurate but also requires less information. The property of manufacturing system performance is given based on the insight from the model.

► Accurate queue time approximation for production systems.
► Quantifying the trade-off between queue time and utilization reliably.
► Decomposing system queue time into bottleneck and non-bottleneck parts via intrinsic ratios.
► Theory of system performance is proposed, which can be used to guide productivity improvement.
► Contribution factors are introduced to capture the dependence among workstations in series.