Unpaced production lines with three simultaneous imbalance sources

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of unpaced reliable production lines that are unbalanced in terms of their mean operation times, coefficients of variation and buffer capacities.Design/methodology/approach – Simulations were carried out for five‐ and eight‐station lines with various buffer capacities and degrees of means imbalance. Throughput, idle time and average buffer level performance indicators were generated and statistically analysed.Findings – The results show that an inverted bowl allocation of mean service times, combined with a bowl configuration for coefficients of variation and a decreasing order of buffer sizes results in higher throughput and lower idle times than a balanced line counterpart. In addition, considerable reductions in average inventory levels were consistently obtained when utilizing a configuration of progressively faster stations, coupled with a bowl‐shaped pattern for coefficients of variation and an ascending buffer size order.Research...