The effects of joint operations time means and variability unbalance on production line performance

Abstract

In this paper unpaced, unbalanced lines with respect to both their mean operation times (MTs) and Coefficients of Variation (CVs) were simulated with different lengths, buffer capacities, degrees of imbalance, and patterns of imbalance. Idle Time (IT), throughput and Average Buffer Level (ABL) data were generated and analysed. The best unbalanced configurations in terms of IT/throughput and ABL were respectively found to be an MT inverted bowl combined with a bowl shaped CV pattern, and an MT decreasing order combined with a bowl CV arrangement. The best patterns provided generally superior performance to that of a balanced line counterpart.