OPTIMAL CONTROL OF A TWO-STAGE TANDEM QUEUING SYSTEM WITH FLEXIBLE SERVERS
Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences
Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications
On the Introduction of an Agile, Temporary Workforce into a Tandem Queueing System
Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications
Serial Agile Production Systems with Automation
Operations Research
Optimal control of flexible servers in two tandem queues with operating costs
Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences
Flexible servers in tandem lines with setup costs
Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications
Dynamic control of a flexible server in an assembly-type queue with setup costs
Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
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This paper considers the control of a single-server tandem queueing system with setups. Jobs arrive to the system according to a Poisson process and are produced to order. A single server must perform a number of different operations on each job. There is a setup time for the server to switch between different operations. We assume that there is a holding cost at each operation, which is nondecreasing in operation number (i.e., as value is added to a job, it becomes more expensive to hold). The cont rol problem is to decide which job the server should process at each point in time. We formulate this control problem as a Markov-Decision Process. We partially characterize the optimal policy, develop an exact analysis of exhaustive and gated polling policies, and develop an effective heuristic policy. The results of a simulation study, which tests the performance of the policies considered, are reported. These computational results indicate that our heuristic is effective for a wide variety of cases.