Flow control of production lines
Abstract
The paper addresses the flow control problem in production lines composed of a series of machines separated by buffers. We assume that the production capacity of each machine is constant and the demand is known over the whole problem horizon. Backlogging is not allowed. The flow control problem consists in adjusting the production of the machines in order to minimize the total cost incurred by holding work in process and finished products. Properties of the optimal solutions are proposed. Based on these properties, we propose a simple analytical solution.