Unitary Manufacturing Cell Design with Random Product Feedback Flow

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Abstract
This paper presents a capacity model that incorporates the influence of stochastic feedback flow on the productivity of a unitary manufacturing cell. A Unitary Manufacturing Cell is defined as an automated group of work stations served by a robot, and producing one single product at a time. Process control considerations and the need to rework a certain portion of produced items usually results in recirculation, or feedback flow. A statistical analysis of parts flow with recirculation is presented along with an illustration of the oscillatory characteristic of its total-cell-time probability density function.