Reliability analysis for an apparel manufacturing system applying fuzzy multistate network

This paper addresses the reliability analysis for a real-world apparel manufacturing system by using fuzzy mathematics. The studied apparel manufacturing system is a precise handicraft profession which involves a great amount of labor-intensive processes. To consider human performance, the apparel manufacturing system is constructed as a fuzzy multistate network, termed apparel manufacturing network (AMN). The workload state of a workstation in the AMN is defined by three fuzzy membership functions: “under-normal-workload”, “normal-workload”, and “over-normal-workload”. Hence, the workload of a workstation is fuzzy multistate and the workstation-reliability is measured by three fuzzy membership functions. Subsequently, the system reliability is evaluated in terms of all workstation-reliabilities, and is derived by fuzzy intersection. The reliability analysis can help the production manager to understand the demand satisfaction of the AMN.