Control of a single-server tandem queueing system with setups

Izak Duenyas, Diwakar Gupta, Tava Lennon Olsen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

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 control 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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)218-230
Number of pages13
JournalOperations Research
Volume46
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 1998

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Control of a single-server tandem queueing system with setups'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this