Split and merge production systems: performance analysis and structural properties

Abstract

Production split and merge operations are widely used in many manufacturing systems to increase production capacity and variety, improve product quality, and carry out scheduling and control activities. This article presents analytical methods to analyze split and merge production systems with exponential machine reliability models, operating under circulate, strictly circulate, priority, and percentage split/merge policies. In addition to developing the recursive procedures for performance analysis, the structural properties of the systems and the impacts of routing policies on system performance are investigated.