Performance of a manufacturing system using a token-passing communication network

The authors consider a flexible and automated two-stage manufacturing system that is externally controlled by computer-based equipment. Communication among the components of this integrated manufacturing system is accomplished over a local area network using a token-passing medium access procedure. Messages from the manufacturing system to the control computers may contain information about the progress of the manufacturing process. Based on this data, the control computers send instructions that serve to control and modify the manufacturing process. A model of such a system is formulated and analyzed, and a set of numerical examples is discussed. The objective is to understand how the efficiency of the manufacturing system is affected by the mechanism and parameters of the communication network.<
>