@article{(Open Science Index):https://publications.waset.org/pdf/10004616, title = {The Operating Behaviour of Unbalanced Unpaced Merging Assembly Lines}, author = {S. Shaaban and T. McNamara and S. Hudson}, country = {}, institution = {}, abstract = {This paper reports on the performance of deliberately unbalanced, reliable, non-automated and assembly lines that merge, whose workstations differ in terms of their mean operation times. Simulations are carried out on 5- and 8-station lines with 1, 2 and 4 buffer capacity units, % degrees of line imbalance of 2, 5 and 12, and 24 different patterns of means imbalance. Data on two performance measures, namely throughput and average buffer level were gathered, statistically analysed and compared to a merging balanced line counterpart. It was found that the best configurations are a balanced line arrangement and a monotone decreasing order for each of the parallel merging lines, with the first generally resulting in a lower throughput and the second leading to a lower average buffer level than those of a balanced line. }, journal = {International Journal of Economics and Management Engineering}, volume = {10}, number = {6}, year = {2016}, pages = {1893 - 1900}, ee = {https://publications.waset.org/pdf/10004616}, url = {https://publications.waset.org/vol/114}, bibsource = {https://publications.waset.org/}, issn = {eISSN: 1307-6892}, publisher = {World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology}, index = {Open Science Index 114, 2016}, }