A Petri net approach to investigating push and pull paradigms in flexible factory automated systems

K. Venkatesh, M. C. Zhou, M. Kaighobadi, R. Caudill

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper shows Petri nets (PNs) as a powerful tool to investigate the problem often encountered in manufacturing systems management, namely comparing the performance of a flexible factory automated system (FFAS) operating under push and pull paradigms. The difficulty in solving this type of problems is compounded by many parameters such as processing times at work cells, number of automated guided vehicles and their routeings, lot sizes, and setup times. The PN method to solve such a problem is illustrated by considering an FFAS. Its PN models are formulated and then analysed to compare the performance of FFAS with ‘pushrsquo; and ‘pull’ paradigms. The results show that for the particular FFAS and operational parameters, the ‘push’ paradigm outperforms the ‘pull’ one. It is concluded that PNs are a suitable tool to conduct performance analysis before adopting the ‘push’ or ‘pull’ paradigm.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)595-620
Number of pages26
JournalInternational Journal of Production Research
Volume34
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1996

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Strategy and Management
  • Management Science and Operations Research
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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