Integrated quality and quantity modeling of a production line

The interaction of quantity and quality performance in a factory is clearly of great economic importance. However, there is very little quantitative analytical literature in this area. This thesis is an essential early research step in analyzing how production system design, quality, and productivity are inter-related in transfer lines. We develop a new Markov process model for machines with both quality and operational failures, and we identify important differences between types of quality failures. We present analytic models, solution techniques, performance evaluations, and validation of two- machine systems as well as longer transfer lines. Through numerical studies, we have investigated some of the conventional wisdom on this interaction, and we have found that the wisdom holds only under specific conditions, and we show that the conventional wisdom is wrong under other conditions. We therefore anticipate that more such research will have a dramatic effect on the performance of factories, and we propose promising research directions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Jongyoon, 1974-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stanley B. Gershwin.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30338

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30338