Nonlinear modelling of a self-balancing production line

摘要

This paper deals with the behaviour of a particular production line, which is more flexible when products have extreme seasonalities or short life-cycles. There are fewer workers than workstations and workers walk to adjacent stations to continue work on an item. This idea was commercialized by Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Toyota, and named TSS. It implements a decentralized control strategy: each worker independently follows a simple rule that determines what to do next. In 1993, J.J. Bartholdi and D.D. Eisenstein made a system analysis of TSS lines. They built a stochastic model and stated a sufficient condition for such production lines having a stationary behaviour, that is, balancing themeslves and producing at a steady rate.