Local and integral control of workload

In most of the literature on performance analysis of production systems, buffer are assumed to be controlled locally. In automated production systems buffers are not always the result of local physical space restrictions, but may also be software-controlled. Software-controlled buffers allow a more efficient use of the production units and a better control of the work in progress. Some of these possible control principles are known from production control and goods flow theory. We present a model for production systems in which the goods flow is continuous. The effect of different control mechanisms on the performance of the system (that is throughput and throughput time) is studied. Examples of control systems are BSC (Base Stock Control), Workload Control and control by local buffers only. It appears that for our model many of these control systems yield equivalent performance measures.