Performance Modeling for a Single Material Handling Device with Random Service Requests — Pure Blocking

In this chapter, a manufacturing cell in which a single device provides movement between a number of distinct locations is studied. We propose an approach for analyzing the performance of the material handling device based on finite networks of queues. In this chapter, the case in which a full input buffer at a delivery location blocks the sending location is considered. Numerical results obtained from the proposed approach are compared with simulation results for the specific case of a robot tending several machines. A companion paper, [10], addresses the situation in which an alternative temporary storage area is provided for input buffer overflows.