Three-Machine Transfer Lines with Unreliable Machines and Finite Buffers

[Shanshan]

Hi,

I need to simulate a transfer line with 3 unreliable machines separated by 2 buffers of finite capacity. When a machine is working, a unit time is required to process a part. During a time unit when a machine i is working, it has probability p_i of failing. After a machine has failed, it is under repair and it had probability r_i of being repaired during a time unit. Therefore, the time to fail is distributed geometrically with a mean time of 1/ p_i and the time to repair is distributed geometrically with a mean time of 1/ r_i.

The smarts082 in Arena is the 2 machine case, but I’m having a hard time to extend it to 3-machine lines.

This is my first post here. Any advice will be appreciated.

[ewilliams]

Greetings. You presumably already have a model with 2 Process modules (for the machine and the buffer just upstream from it). Is there a problem with adding a third Process module in sequence?