1 Presentation

• 
  09:00 AM - 10:00 AM

  Qualitative Observations on Production Line Behavior - Intuitive and Counter-Intuitive Explanations

  • Stanley B. Gershwin, presenter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  The objective of this talk is to describe behavior observed in models of production lines and to propose intuitive explanations of that behavior. We explain how inventory is distributed along a line in terms of variability (and other factors). We show how optimal allocations of buffer space are also influenced by variability. We demonstrate examples that suggest that much of the behavior of long lines can be explained in terms of two-machine, one-buffer lines.