Properties of Continous Models of Transfer Lines with Unreliable Machines and Finite Buffers

We consider a transfer line consisting of a series of machinesseparated by buffers of finite capacity. The processing of apart on a machine requires a fixed amount of time. In thesesystems, blocking and starvation, which occur as a consequenceof machine failures, are important phenomena. Except for transferlines without buffer storage, no exact models of such systemshave been reported in the literature, even in the case of two-machinelines. Two approximate models have been proposed: the discrete-timemodel and the continuous-flow model. Exact solutions of theemodels have been reported in the case of two-machine Lines,and approximations have been proposed for longer lines. Thepurpose of this paper is to provide properties of the continuous-flowmodel. The main result of the paper is to show that lower andupper bounds on the exact production rate of the transfer linecan be obtained using the continuous flow model. These boundsare obtained by making an appropriate choice of the buffer capacities