Probability Masses Fitting In The Analysis Of Manufacturing Flow Lines

A new alternative in the analysis of manufacturing systems with finite buffers is presented. The authors propose and study a new approach in order to build tractable phase-type distributions, which are required by state-of the-art analytical models. Called "Probability Masses Fitting" (PMF), the approach is quite simple: the probability masses on regular intervals are computed and aggregated on a single value in the corresponding interval, leading to a discrete distribution. PMF shows some interesting properties: it is bounding, monotonic and it conserves the shape of the distribution.