A new method for the placement of buffers in serial production lines |
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Authors: | Hector A Vergara |
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Affiliation: | Department of Industrial Engineering , School of Sciences and Engineering, Universidad San Francisco de Quito , Quito, 17-1200-841, Ecuador |
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Abstract: | The placement of buffers in a production line is an old and well-studied problem in industrial engineering/operations research that is still relevant today. Decisions regarding the amount and placement of buffers in a production line occur repeatedly in system design. In this paper we document a new buffer placement method for serial production lines that operate under a variety of assumptions. The method uses information generated in a production line simulation, whose conceptual representation of job flow and workstation interaction can be described with a network, to place buffers in order to maximise throughput. This buffer placement method is very efficient and can be implemented in a spreadsheet. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method by comparing our results against those produced by a genetic algorithm for buffer placement. Experiments are conducted on a variety of test cases. This new buffer placement optimisation method will permit designers to quickly and effectively evaluate many design alternatives and thus improve final production system performance. |
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Keywords: | buffer management simulation heuristics |
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