Throughput in Serial Lines with State-Dependent Behavior
研究生产线工人根据状态调整工作速率的行为，建立模型分析这种状态依赖行为对生产线长度与吞吐量关系的影响，发现该行为能提高效率并减轻长线对吞吐量的负面影响。
Experimental evidence suggests that production-line workers adjust their work rates in certain situations to prevent idle time. We refer to this as state-dependent behavior, in contrast to the state-independent behavior of machines. In this paper, we develop several models for the state-dependent behavior of production workers. We then use these models to analyze the relation of line length to throughput in these systems. We find that state-dependent behavior makes serial lines more efficient and reduces the detrimental effects that longer line lengths have on throughput. In some cases, line efficiency can actually increase with length. This is a result of a higher percentage of workers having two buffers to provide feedback on the state of the line. Further, we show that workers who both speed up when they are likely to cause idle time for others and slow down when they are likely to become idle themselves improve the overall efficiency of the line.