Optimal buffer allocation for serial production lines using heuristic search algorithms: a comparative study

Abstract

The buffer allocation problem (BAP) is one of the major optimisation problems faced by production system designers. BAP is widely studied in the literature since buffers have a great impact on efficiency of production lines. This paper deals with buffer allocation problem and compares the performance of three heuristic search algorithms, namely myopic algorithm (MA), degraded ceiling (DC), and adaptive tabu search (ATS) with respect to both throughput maximisation and also computational time. To generalise experimental findings the experiments have been conducted both for reliable and also unreliable serial production lines over various sizes of problem instances. It is hoped that the findings of this research study can serve as a guideline for the decision makers while designing and operating production lines.