Abstract:
In this paper, the description and results of simulation experiments investigating buffer allocation in closed serial production lines are presented. The production lines studied consist of either reliable or unreliable workstations, and have asynchronous movement of jobs. The experimental results are used to demonstrate a buffer allocation decomposition result for closed production lines, and also provide evidence that optimal buffer allocations in closed lines are less sensitive to bottleneck severity than in open production lines. Another key finding is that buffer allocation decisions have more impact in closed reliable production lines than in closed unreliable production lines.
Description:
This is the author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by Elsevier and can be found at: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-production-economics/.
