Feedback control for a multi-product flow line

The objective of this report is to develop a method to control a manufacturing system using feedback control. The manufacturing system of interest is a three machine multi-product flow line with stochastic process times, producing eight different product types in large quantities. The performance of the feedback controlled flow line is compared to the performance of the flow line controlled by several common control methods: push, pull, conwip, and POLCA control. The main performance criteria for the flow line are assumed to be the throughput of the system and the inventory level.