Self-Buffering, Self-Balancing, Self-Flushing Production Lines
研究工人多于机器的柔性分配系统，通过动态调整任务实现生产线自平衡，降低在制品库存，并证明在加工时间不确定时柔性分配优于固定分配。
This research addresses a system of flexible worker assignments in a setting where there are more workers than machines. When organized using this system, a production line balances itself by shifting the workloads continuously and automatically in response to changes in the state of the system. The system is, in effect, buffering itself against variation by altering the work assignments on the fly. This allows the system to operate with very low levels of work-in-process inventory (WIP). In this paper, the workers (rather than machines) are the factor that limits the rate of output. We also assume that the line has a “U” shape, but many of the results do not depend on this topology. An industrial example is described. The system has some interesting and counter-intuitive properties which we demonstrate under a variety of circumstances through an exploratory approach that uses both Markovian and simulation models. Several different policies are compared under conditions of processing time uncertainty. We demonstrate that a flexible assignment system can outperform fixed assignments in a variety of circumstances. Of particular interest is the near absence of balance delay, even when the tasks cannot be divided equally among the workers.