Allocation of buffers to serial production lines with bottlenecks
- 1 January 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in IIE Transactions
- Vol. 28 (1), 18-29
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07408179608966249
Abstract
The optimal placement of a predetermined amount of buffer capacity in balanced serial production lines is a well-understood problem: in lines with moderate variability, the optimal allocation involves equal numbers of buffers at each site; in lines with severe variability, the equal allocation is modified slightly to place more buffers toward the center of the line. Buffering unbalanced lines is a much less well-understood problem. We study the problem of buffering serial lines with moderate variability and a single bottleneck; i.e., a single station with a larger mean processing time than all other stations. Our analysis shows that a bottleneck station draws buffers toward it, but the optimal allocation depends on the location and severity of the bottleneck, as well as the number of buffers available. Furthermore, relatively large imbalances in mean processing times are required to shift the optimal buffer allocation away from an equal allocation. Finally, line length appears to have a relatively small effect on the optimal allocation with a given bottleneck. These results suggest that, at least for the class of lines studied here, equal buffer allocations may be optimal except in severely unbalanced lines. Furthermore, in severely unbalanced lines, throughput appears to be insensitive to the allocation of buffers.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Manufacturing flow line systems: a review of models and analytical resultsQueueing Systems, 1992
- The effect of machine breakdowns and interstage storage on the performance of production line systemsInternational Journal of Production Research, 1991
- Approximate Analysis of Queues in Series with Phase-Type Service Times and BlockingOperations Research, 1989
- Buffer Space Allocation in Automated Assembly LinesOperations Research, 1988
- The Role of Work-in-Process Inventory in Serial Production LinesOperations Research, 1988
- A gradient technique for general buffer storage design in a production lineInternational Journal of Production Research, 1979