Modelling plant capacity and productivity: the multi-machine case

This study deals with systems (lines, departments or production units) made up of multiple machines, and it analyzes the meaning and assessment of productivity, utilization, efficiency and so forth at system level. Special emphasis is placed on calculating indices for the whole system starting from parameters referred to a single machine. Two basic system types are discussed, i.e. pure parallel systems and pure serial systems. The latter ones are further split into serial systems with tightly interconnected machines (i.e. without buffers), serial systems with loosely interconnected machines (i.e. provided with some decoupling buffers among stages), and independent departments systems.