Chaotic behavior in manufacturing systems

In this article, we present a methodology derived from non-linear dynamic systems (NLDS) theory for analyzing the dynamic behavior of manufacturing systems. Some simple production systems are simulated, for which a chaotic behavior can be observed under certain dispatching rules and utilization levels. The dynamic behavior of a reactive system is studied; i.e., a system in which there is no previous schedule but jobs and operations are assigned to machines according to the state of the system. A discrete event model is used to represent the manufacturing system.