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• Describe some important issues in the design and operation of manufacturing systems.
• Explain important measures of system performance.
• Show the importance of random, potentially disruptive events.
• Give some intuition about behavior of these systems.
• Explain the importance of capacity, and how it can vary randomly over time.
• Teach enough mathematics (especially probability) to describe manufacturing systems behavior.
• Show how in-process inventory is sometimes a necessary evil - that is, show the benefits as well as costs.
• Present some practical tools for systems design.
• Describe issues in real-time scheduling, and show why deterministic scheduling is often not adequate.
• Present some simple scheduling rules.

Prerequisites

Probability and optimization or permission of the instructor.

Probability (6.041 or 18.05) is the important prerequisite.

Quizzes

Take-home midterm and final.

Project

Optional, to replace half of final.

Grading Policy

or

Text

Gershwin, Stanley B. Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Paramus NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. ISBN: 9780135606087. (Available with the instructor.)