Experimental results for the allocation of buffers in closed serial production lines

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. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.