Improving linear processing systems via flexibility

In this paper we tried to improve a given stochastic processing line which is perfectly balanced. By introducing flexibility to a stochastic processing line, we can achieve the benefit of resource pooling. When we apply priority sequencing to the flexible processing line, we can attain an additional reduction in the mean throughput time. By using the heavy traffic approximation the ratio of improvement from flexibility is shown to be significant. We also considered the set-up time loss due to flexibility and derived the appropriate range in which flexibility outperforms set-up time loss. The result of this paper implies that we should consider the alternative of introducing flexibility to a processing system rather than trying to optimally allocate each segments of jobs and get a balanced processing line.