Resource supportability simulation model for a man-machine production system

A man-machine production system (MMPS) comprising numerous operations to be processed in a definite technological sequence, is considered. The duration of each operation is random and the corresponding probability density function is pregiven. Certain operations entering the MMPS require extremely costly and rare resources which have to be prepared and delivered from outside and can be at the system's disposal within a short time span. Other operations require non-constrained and constrained resources which are available every time period. Since the system is not fully automatic, control actions, including both the resource delivering and the resource reallocation, are introduced by decision makers. The problem is to predetermine the moments of delivering rare resources from outside (a deterministic schedule) and to reallocate constrained available resources among operations ready to start processing (a random schedule to be determined in the course of the manufacturing process) in order to minimize the system's non-operational average expenses. The problem is solved via simulation, in combination with a cyclic coordinate descent method and a knapsack reallocation algorithm. The developed model has been applied on a real man-machine industrial plant. (C) 2000 IMACS. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.