Title: An optimal countermeasure policy to mitigate random capacity disruptions in a production system

Authors: Alex A. Savachkin, Niyazi Onur Bakir, Andres Uribe-Sanchez

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E, Fowler Avenue, ENB118, Tampa, FL 33620-5350, USA. ' Center for Homeland Security, University of Southern California, 3710 Mc Clintock Ave, Room 322, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2902, USA. ' Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, ENB118, Tampa, FL 33620-5350, USA

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate a manufacturing system exposed to unpredicted capacity disruptions with exponentially distributed interoccurrence times and uniformly distributed magnitudes of disruptions. Each disruption renders a stepwise partial system capacity loss accumulating over time until the remaining capacity reaches a certain level, upon which the system gradually restores the lost capacity to the target level. We examine implementation of a countermeasure policy, aimed at reducing the disruption rate, for risk-neutral decision maker who seeks to maximise long-run average return. We explore how the policy of maintaining the optimal disruption rate is affected by a number of system parameters.

Keywords: production systems; capacity; random disruptions; stepwise loss; linear recovery; convex cost function; countermeasure policy; mitigation strategy; manufacturing systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2008.019596

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2008 Vol.3 No.1/2, pp.4 - 17

Published online: 17 Jul 2008 *

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