Optimal and heuristic inspection schedules for multistage production systems

Gad Rabinowitz, Hamilton Emmons

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Consider a single inspection facility that can be quickly switched among multiple inspection tasks. It can be used (for example) for detecting malfunction (or down state) production stages in a multistage production system. We assume that a properly working (or up state) production stage moves to a down state in any period with fixed probability. The stage then stays down until it is inspected and immediately restored back to an up state. Our purpose is to schedule inspections among the different production stages so as to maximize the fraction of good items produced. An optimal inspection schedule for a two stage production system is provided. For the general case of more than two stages, four heuristics are compared. We conclude that the proposed dynamic schedule is easy to derive, always feasible, and outperforms the static schedules.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1063-1071
Number of pages9
JournalIIE Transactions (Institute of Industrial Engineers)
Volume29
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 1997

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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