How lean can lean buffers be?

Abstract This paper provides a quantitative characterization of the smallest, i.e., lean, buffer capacity necessary and sufficient to attain a desired throughput in serial production lines with identical exponential machines. The development is carried out in terms of normalized buffer capacity and production line efficiency. The smallest normalized buffer capacity required to ensure the desired line efficiency is referred to as the Lean Level of Buffering (LLB). Exact formulas for the LLB in two- and three-machine lines are presented and an approximate expression for the LLB in lines with more than three machines is derived. Along with these analytical results, several qualitative insights into the nature of lean buffering in serial production lines are presented.

[1]  Semyon M. Meerkov,et al.  Buffer capacity for accommodating machine downtime in serial production lines , 2001, Proceedings of the 40th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (Cat. No.01CH37228).

[2]  William L. Maxwell,et al.  The Role of Work-in-Process Inventory in Serial Production Lines , 1988, Oper. Res..

[3]  Stanley B. Gershwin,et al.  Efficient algorithms for buffer space allocation , 2000, Ann. Oper. Res..

[4]  J. A. Buzacott,et al.  AUTOMATIC TRANSFER LINES WITH BUFFER STOCKS , 1967 .

[5]  Stephen G. Powell,et al.  Allocation of buffers to serial production lines with bottlenecks , 1996 .

[6]  Stephen G. Powell,et al.  An empirical investigation of the two-moment approximation for production lines , 1994 .

[7]  C.-L. Lin,et al.  Performance evaluation of unbalanced serial production lines , 1994 .

[8]  Semyon M. Meerkov,et al.  A system-theoretic property of serial production lines: improvability , 1993, Proceedings of 32nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[9]  Frederick S. Hillier,et al.  The effect of machine breakdowns and interstage storage on the performance of production line systems , 1991 .

[10]  M. Caramanis.  Production system design: a discrete event dynamic system and generalized Benders' decomposition approach , 1987 .

[11]  M. W. Rohrer,et al.  Allocation of Buffer Capacities for a Class of Fixed Cycle Production Lines , 1979 .

[12]  John A. Buzacott,et al.  Stochastic models of manufacturing systems , 1993 .

[13]  Yushin Hong,et al.  Heuristic algorithms for buffer allocation in a production line with unreliable machines , 1995 .

[14]  Tayfur Altiok,et al.  The Allocation of Interstage Buffer Capacities in Production Lines , 1983 .

[15]  Taeho Park,et al.  A two-phase heuristic algorithm for determining buffer sizes of production lines , 1993 .

[16]  John H. Harris,et al.  An algorithm for optimal buffer placement in reliable serial lines , 1999 .

[17]  J. George Shanthikumar,et al.  Determination of Optimal Buffer Storage Capacities and Optimal Allocation in Multistage Automatic Transfer Lines , 1989 .

[18]  Kelvin C. W. So,et al.  The effect of the coefficient of variation of operation times on the allocation of storage space in , 1991 .

[19]  We-Min Chow,et al.  Buffer capacity analysis for sequential production lines with variable process times , 1987 .

[20]  Hideaki Yamashita,et al.  An Approximate Solution Method for Optimal Buffer Allocation in Serial n-stage Automatic Production Lines : Series C : Vibration, Control Engineering, Engineering for Industry , 1987 .

[21]  Tayfur Altiok,et al.  Buffer capacity allocation for a desired throughput in production lines , 1998 .

[22]  Horst Tempelmeier,et al.  Practical considerations in the optimization of flow production systems , 2003 .

[23]  Semyon M. Meerkov,et al.  DT-bottlenecks in serial production lines: theory and application , 2000, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[24]  Stephen G. Powell.  BUFFER ALLOCATION IN UNBALANCED THREE-STATION SERIAL LINES , 1994 .

[25]  James MacGregor Smith,et al.  Buffer Space Allocation in Automated Assembly Lines , 1988, Oper. Res..