Quality-Reliability Coupled Network Modeling and Importance Measure of Multi-Stage Manufacturing Systems via Network Controllability Analysis

The fluctuation of product quality is closely related to the degradation of the equipment in multi-stage manufacturing systems. This paper proposes a critical measure approach for a quality-reliability coupled network of multi-stage manufacturing systems via network controllability. The impact of component degradation will be transmitted, expanded, and accumulated in multiple manufacturing stages, leading to quality flaws or even shutdowns of the entire system. An important measurement method via controllability analysis is provided by quantifying the impact of attacking the quality-reliability coupled network. By quantifying the control ability of the fault source node on the key quality attribute node, the weakness that affects the processing accuracy of a production line is identified. Case studies of real production lines are applied to verify the effectiveness, and comparative results show the method can guide the quality-reliability improvement of manufacturing systems.