A MIXED DYNAMICS APPROACH FOR LINEAR CORRIDOR POLICIES - A REVISITATION OF DYNAMIC SETUP SCHEDULING AND FLOW-CONTROL IN MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Sharifnia, Caramanis, and Gershwin [1991] introduced a class of policies for manufacturing systems, called by them linear corridor policies. They proved that their stability can be discussed by the study of a simpler subset of such policies (cone policies). This paper revisits their work presenting a different description of the dynamics of the systems under study and explores it to device a necessary and sufficient condition for stability, obtained by the strengthening of the assumptions in Sharifnia et al. (1991). This condition is shown to be simply tested (M(-1) greater than or equal to 0) and valid for various realizations.