Predictive formulae for unpaced line efficiency

One of the classic problems of industrial engineering is how to accurately predict the efficiency of an unpaced production line for any number of workstations, any interstation buffer capacities, and for realistic workstation processing time distributions. Existing predictive models are analysed and the most promising one extended and refined. The result is the most comprehensive and realistically applicable predictor available today, with precision a full order of magnitude better than that of any previous model.