Estimating throughput in an unbalanced assembly-like flow system

The authors consider an assembly-like flow system where the assembly machine is fed from the storage buffers of two input machines. All machines are subject to random failures and the input machines have higher rate of production than the assembly machine, so that the assembly machine becomes the bottleneck of the system. The authors derive an approximate expression for the steady-state average throughput of the system and indicate how it can be used to optimally size buffers.