RELIABILITY OF MULTISTAGE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS CONTROLLED BY AUTOMATED VISUAL INSPECTION Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The model examines the reliability of a failure-prone multistage production process controlled by a mechanism consisting of multiple cameras (one for each stage) and a single processor which is shared among all the stages (one stage at a time). Reliability is the average fraction of time all the operating production stages of the system are in-control simultaneously. The control functions for each stage involve inspection of the stage status by processing images of the stage outputs and resetting of the stage parameters when the inspection result suggests that the stage is not-in-control. A stage is not-in-control when the stage production parameters drift away from their set values causing the measure of the stage output characteristic to fall outside any of its predetermined limits. The system characteristics are: the stages stay in-control for exponentially distributed lengths of time, the times required to perform stage control functions and to switch control from one stage to another are generally distributed random variables, the schedules for switching control (processor's attention) among the stages are either static or dynamic, inspection results are subject to types I & II errors. A computational formula for the steadystate reliability of such a production process is developed. The steps in the computation are for a specific system which serves as a numerical example. Model applications include performance evaluation of automated control mechanisms under various combinations of system parameter values and switching schedules. 1993 IEEE

published proceedings

  • IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON RELIABILITY

author list (cited authors)

  • DAS, T. K., & WORTMAN, M. A.

citation count

  • 2

complete list of authors

  • DAS, TK||WORTMAN, MA

publication date

  • January 1993