The stochastic flowshop makespan. Part 1. Some general results for the buffered case

This, the first part of a two-part study, considers stochastic flowshops with infinite bufferage. There is a discussion of the modes into which the jobs may fall and expressions are developed for the associated probabilities and makespan-contributions. Various ‘symmetries’ are noted. Exact results are presented for cases up to and including three jobs through three machines when these service times are exponentially distributed and consideration is given to the varying of the distribution parameters. [See next abstract.]