Article ID: | iaor20106096 |
Volume: | 40 |
Issue: | 6 |
Start Page Number: | 595 |
End Page Number: | 611 |
Publication Date: | Jun 2008 |
Journal: | IIE Transactions |
Authors: | Lewis Mark E, Wu Chung-Hung, Down Douglas G |
Keywords: | heuristics |
We consider the allocation of reconfigurable resources in a serial line with machine failures. Each station is equipped with non-idling dedicated servers while the whole system is equipped with a finite number of reconfigurable servers. The reconfigurable servers are available to be assigned to any station and all servers are allowed to collaborate on a single job. We provide conditions for a policy to achieve throughput optimality. We also show in the two-station case that transition monotone optimal policies exist. We discuss heuristics based on the two-server model that reduce average holding costs significantly. These heuristics are compared to several heuristics from the literature via a detailed numerical study.