On the modeling of line feeding systems with bin-kanban and logistic trains as polling systems

This paper deals with the part supply process in a mixed-model assembly line served by a logistic train. The logistic train periodically follows a fixed route (tour) and, in each tour, it visits all the stations for providing full bins of parts and retrieving the empty bins (which will be re-filled in a “supermarket” at the end of the tour). The aim of this paper is to analytically model such a system in order to support the dimensioning of both the logistic train and the station buffers. The innovative contribution consists in treating the system as a “polling system”, i.e., a set of queues attended by a single server. This allows us to consider the variability of the station cycle times and the tour duration of the logistic train. In particular, since the capacity of the logistic train is constrained by the number of wagons, the study generalizes approaches for the uncapacitated-server polling systems to the capacitated case.