Performance analysis of non-homogeneous hybrid production lines based on decomposition method

For analysing performance of non-homogeneous hybrid lines, several new techniques are proposed to transform non-homogeneous production lines into homogeneous lines so that the traditional decomposition method can be utilised to analyse non-homogeneous hybrid lines. The techniques are complementary to the current transformation technique. The techniques are tested and discussed by numerical experiments based on the decomposition method. It is shown that the new transformation techniques have good estimations on the performance of the lines with weak non-homogeneousness in comparison with the traditional technique. Furthermore, the discussion of the techniques clears several questions about the traditional transformation technique, which were answered in former studies. The new techniques help promote the application of the homogenisation technique of non-homogeneous lines. © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.