Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Volume 2004 (2004), Issue 3, Pages 209-223
doi:10.1155/S1024123X04402014
A dynamic programming algorithm for the buffer
allocation problem in homogeneous asymptotically reliable serial production lines
Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, Hermoupolis, Syros 84100, Greece
Received 9 February 2004; Revised 5 April 2004
Copyright © 2004 A. C. Diamantidis and C. T. Papadopoulos. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
In this study, the buffer allocation problem (BAP) in
homogeneous, asymptotically reliable serial production lines is
considered. A known aggregation method, given by Lim, Meerkov, and
Top (1990), for the performance evaluation (i.e., estimation of
throughput) of this type of production lines when the buffer
allocation is known, is used as an evaluative method in
conjunction with a newly developed dynamic programming (DP)
algorithm for the BAP. The proposed algorithm is applied to
production lines where the number of machines is varying
from four
up to a hundred machines. The proposed algorithm is fast because
it reduces the volume of computations by rejecting allocations
that do not lead to maximization of the line's throughput.
Numerical results are also given for large production lines.