Article ID: | iaor20011700 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 93 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 117 |
End Page Number: | 144 |
Publication Date: | May 2000 |
Journal: | Annals of Operations Research |
Authors: | Gershwin Stanley B., Schor James E. |
Keywords: | buffer allocation |
This paper describes efficient algorithms for determining how buffer space should be allocated in a flow line. We analyze two problems: a primal problem, which minimizes total buffer space subject to a production rate constraint; and a dual problem, which maximizes production rate subject to a total buffer space constraint. The dual problem is solved by means of a gradient method, and the primal problem is solved using the dual solution. Numerical results are presented. Profit optimization problems are natural generalizations of the primal and dual problems, and we show how they can be solved using essentially the same algorithms.