Optimal allocation of machines and buffers in transfer line-flow systems under reliability-space and cost constraints

The problem of the optimal performance design of manufacturing system where redendunt machines and buffers are included in order to achieve desired levels of performance rate is considered. A procedure which determines the maximum performance configuration subject to reliability, cost and space of buffer constraints is proposed. In this procedure, system machines and specific buffers are chosen from a list of available product and a number of machines is determined for each system component with their buffers spaces allocation. Machines are characterised by their cost, failure rate, repaire rate and processing time. Buffers are characterised by their cost and space or (size). To estimate production line transfer performance, an decomposition-type method is used. A list of available product on the market characterizes specific space buffers and machines with their characteristics are available. The optimal design problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization where the decision variables are size or space buffers allocations and kind of machine as redundant components. A universal generating function technique is applied to evaluate system availability.