In: Proc. Int. Workshop on Intelligent Systems and Innovative Computations, 1-3 August 1994, Tokyo, Japan, pages 38-47. 1994.
Abstract: It is shown that a large class of flexible manufacturing cells can be modeled using timed Petri nets. Net models of simple schedules (i.e., schedules in which exactly one part enter and one leaves the cell during each cycle) are conflict--free nets. Invariant analysis of such models provides analytic (or symbolic) solutions for the cycle time or throughput of a cell. Several directions for further research are indicated.
Keywords: invariant analysis, manufacturing cells, performance analysis, timed Petri nets.