On approximate performance evaluation of manufacturing

Approximate throughput computation of a class of discrete event systems (DES) modelled with stochastic weighted T{systems is considered. Stochastic weighted T{systems are the weighted extension of well known stochastic marked graphs Petri net subclass and are usually presented as a useful model to deal with bulk con-sumptions or productions of resources in manufacturing systems working on a cyclic basis. The iterative response time approximation technique that we present is deeply based on a previous structural decomposition and aggre-gation of the net model. Experimental results on several examples generally have and error of less than 5%. The state space is usually reduced by more than one order of magnitude; therefore, the analysis of otherwise intractable systems is possible.