Analysis and synthesis of serial production lines

A serial production line with failure-prone machines is studied. Quantities such as the average production rate of this line and the steady-state occupancy of the buffers between the machines are expressed in terms of failure probabilities of the machines and of buffer capacities. An algorithm is given that yields a close approximation of the average production rate of the total line. A rule is found which distributes the total workforce optimally so as to secure a given minimum production rate of the total line. A rule is also given which distributes the total capacity of all buffers in an optimal way. The theory presented is an extension of the work of S.M. Meerkov and F. Top (1990)