Characteristics analysis of cellular bucket brigades with different constraints

Cellular bucket brigade (CBB) is known as the self-organizing and self-balancing production system, but in different constraints, its self-organizing feature also presents different characteristics. According to constraints of station, this article divides the CBB system into three types: (1) CBB-1, no obvious location, in which an arbitrary position can be an exchange of work; (2) CBB-2, location limited, in which any place can be a transition; and (3) CBB-3, location limited, which cannot be exchanged within the stations. Then, the corresponding mathematical models are established to analyze the performance of the CBBs. At last, numerical simulation provides the following results: Both CBB-1 and CBB-2 have only one balance point and good convergence from any states to balance point, while the balance point of CBB-3 is of uncertainty.