Flow complexity—a data suitability index for flowline systems

In layout planning the concept of ‘flow dominance’—the situation in which relatively few paths of flow dominate the overall materials movement problem— has been recognized for many years as a guide to whether line layout may be effective. More recently, so-called upper and lower bounds on flow dominance and a parameter‘problem complexity’ based on these bounds have been proposed as being more informative than flow dominance alone. In this paper it is shown that these so-called upper and lower bounds are only bounding values under certain conditions. A new parameter, ‘flow complexity’, is proposed which more effectively measures the complexity of flow. This parameter has a value which does lie between two bounds, one of which implies a pure flow line situation, the other the pure job shop situation.