Reducing energy consumption in serial production lines with Bernoulli reliability machines

Abstract

In this paper, an integrated model to minimize energy consumption while maintaining desired productivity in Bernoulli serial lines is introduced. Exact analysis of optimal allocation of production capacity is carried out for small systems, such as three- and four-machine lines with small buffers. For medium size systems (e.g., three- and four-machine lines with larger buffers, or five-machine lines with small buffers), an aggregation procedure is introduced to evaluate line production rate, and then use it to search optimal allocation of machine efficiency to minimize energy usage. Insights and allocation principles are obtained through the analyses. Finally, for larger systems, a heuristic algorithm is proposed and validated through extensive numerical experiments.