Analysis of Production Line with Finite Buffers and a General Service Term

This paper considers a production line with continuous loading at the first automation service station or machine and buffers placed forward the queuers. Each machine operates within an indefinite service time. There is much data available on modeling and analysis of the transfer lines. However, most of the results are for the steady-state operation. The system under consideration operates within the finite time interval. A method is suggested to study the production line. According to the method, we chart the system operation process; calculate of distribution formula for the remaining durations of time period of the system being in the states marked at the chart. Then we calculate the state indexes. A detailed description of the states allows calculating, for example, blocking machine indexes and machine down time probabilities and durations.