Performance analysis and buffer allocations in some open assembly systems

This paper considers a 3nite capacity fork–join queueing model for open assembly systems with arrival and departure synchronizations and presents an approach for enumerating the state space and obtaining the steady state probabilities of the same for such a model under exponential assumptions. Several performance measures like the throughput of the system, fraction of arrivals that actually enter into the system, utilizations of the work stations, etc., are obtained. Further, design of such fork–join systems in terms of bu'er size con3gurations for maximizing the throughput of the system, or for minimizing the mean waiting time of a typical job, or for minimizing the Work-In-Process of the system is done using the above performance prediction approach. Such optimal con3gurations exhibit some interesting features.