Description:Providing a description of some of the phenomena in material flow in manufacturing systems, this text details some of the potentially disruptive events that affect the production process, the control action that managers can take in anticipation or response, and the consequences of disruptions and the managers's actions. It focuses on two major areas: the effects of unreliability, variability, and finite storage space on system performance; and control-theoretic methods for operating advanced manufacturing systems to obtain high performance.