The production rate of a series of work stations with variable service times*

Abstract

A mathematical model for the interdemand time at the first station of a production line with stochastic service times is presented. Production rate is expressed as the reciprocal of mean interdemand time. The analysis is not restricted to the assumption of exponentially distributed service times. General solutions for the distribution of interdemand time are derived for two and three work stations. For any number of work stations a lower bound on production rate is presented graphically. It is shown that production rates obtained with exponentially distributed service times are unrealistically low. © 1973 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.