A segmentation approach for solving buffer allocation problems in large production systems

Abstract

Buffer space allocation is an important step in production line design. In this paper, we focus on maximising the profit rate of a line subject to a production rate constraint. We describe a newly observed property of production line optimisation. The property is that the production rate constraint, if it is effective, allows an original line to be decoupled into several short lines for optimisation. An approximation method is developed from this property. Instead of optimising a long line, the method divides it into several short lines, optimises them separately and combines their optimal buffer distributions to find the optimal or near optimal buffer distribution of the original line. The method greatly improves the computation efficiency for solving buffer allocation problem for long lines, while ensuring the accuracy of the optimal buffer distribution. A heuristic explanation is proposed. Numerical experiments are provided to show the accuracy and efficiency of the method. The effect of the number and length of line segments on the performance of the method is discussed.