example solved with nonzero buffer capacities at each location Dar El EZ
example solved with nonzero buffer capacities at each location Dar El EZ
example solved with nonzero buffer capacities at each location Dar El EZ
Analyses of Serial Production Line Systems for Erdal Erel Ihsan Sabuncuoglu Bilkent University, Ankara 06800 Turkey Gurhan A. Kok Fuqua School of Business, Duke University Durham, NC 27708 USA Volume 10, Number 4 December 2004, pp. 1-22 Received: April 2003
This paper investigates the well-known and extensively studied unpaced production line problem for the interdeparture time variability and work-in-process (WIP) inventory. The primary objective is to examine the relationships between the interdeparture time variability and some system design factors such as the number of stations, buffer capacity, and location of a bottleneck station. The performance of the system is also evaluated for average and variance of WIP inventory. Simulation is used as a modeling and analysis tool with the results being tested by appropriate statistical procedures. The analysis of the results reveals several important findings on the interdeparture time variability and WIP inventory. We confirm and strengthen some of the previous findings on throughput. In this paper, we also discuss managerial implications and suggest further research areas. Keywords: Manufacturing, Production, Simulation
In this paper, we study the design problem of unpaced and asynchronous serial production lines with reliable machines. The design problem consists of determining the line length, total buffer capacity and its allocation, and locating the bottleneck station(s). This is an important problem because it is frequently encountered in practice and even a small change in system parameters may lead to significant savings or losses in production costs and other performance measures. Hence, it has been extensively studied in the literature for line efficiency (Muth 1973; Blumenfeld 1990; Martin 1993). Majority of the previous work has concentrated on the throughput measure. As a result, numerous useful findings have been found and documented in the literature (see the review article of Dallery and Gershwin 1992). Performance measures other than throughput (i.e.,the interdeparture time variability and average WIP inventory) have been recently considered by a few researchers. This is partly due to the fact that the interdeparture time variability and average WIP inventory have become more important measures in today’s highly competitive and dynamic business environments. The motivation for our study stems from the fact that a more timely and predictable supply of goods is a prerequisite to get a competitive advantage in the business world. Variability in manufacturing environment is one of the obstacles in achieving prompt delivery. In general, the variability is known to be detrimental, but at the same time it is impossible to be eliminated completely. Hence, it is important to identify the sources of variability, measure it accurately, and understand its relationship with the system design factors. In this paper, we discuss these issues and study the problem in terms of the interdeparture time variability. Even though the primary emphasis is on the interdeparture time variability, results are also reported for the average and variability of WIP inventory and throughput measures. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. We give the relevant literature and highlight the important studies on the problem in the next section. This is followed by system considerations and experimental conditions. Then we present the results of the experiments in the next section. Finally, we conclude the paper with a summary of findings and managerial implications.
There is a substantial body of literature on the analysis of asynchronous serial lines with reliable machines; for the last four decades, several researchers have attempted to determine line efficiency and the effect of interstation buffer capacity on various performance measures. The majority of the studies consist of attempts to determine line efficiency measured as throughput either analytically or by utilizing approximate procedures such as predictive equations or simulation models. Exact expressions and numerical methods are developed to determine throughput for lines with a limited length and/or certain processing time distribution functions (Hillier and Boling 1967; Rao 1975a, 1975b; Muth and Alkaff 1987; Hillier and So 1991). For the throughput of longer lines with various distribution functions, several approximate expressions and simulation models are proposed (Hillier and Boling 1967; Anderson and Moodie 1969; Dar-El and Mazer 1989; Blumenfeld 1990; Martin 1993; Baker, et al. 1994; Liu, et al. 1996). Another group of studies search the optimal allocation of buffer capacities to maximize throughput (Hillier and Boling 1966, 1979, 1993; Con |
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