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TECHNICAL NOTE---Cellular Bucket Brigades

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  • Yun Fong Lim

    (Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore 178899, Republic of Singapore)

Abstract

Workers in a bucket brigade production system perform unproductive travel when they walk to get more work from their colleagues. We introduce a new design of bucket brigades to reduce unproductive travel. Under the new design, each worker works on one side of an aisle when he proceeds in one direction and works on the other side when he proceeds in the reverse direction. We propose simple rules for workers to share work under the new design and find a sufficient condition for the system to self-balance. Numerical examples suggest that the improvement in throughput by the new design can be as large as 30%. Even with a 20% reduction in labor, the new design can still increase throughput by 7%.

Suggested Citation

  • Yun Fong Lim, 2011. "TECHNICAL NOTE---Cellular Bucket Brigades," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(6), pages 1539-1545, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:59:y:2011:i:6:p:1539-1545
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1110.0958
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bartholdi III, John J. & Eisenstein, Donald D. & Lim, Yun Fong, 2006. "Bucket brigades on in-tree assembly networks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 168(3), pages 870-879, February.
    2. Donald D. Eisenstein, 2005. "Recovering Cyclic Schedules Using Dynamic Produce-Up-To Policies," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 675-688, August.
    3. Armbruster, Dieter & Gel, Esma S. & Murakami, Junko, 2007. "Bucket brigades with worker learning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(1), pages 264-274, January.
    4. John J. Bartholdi & Donald D. Eisenstein & Yun Fong Lim, 2009. "Deterministic chaos in a model of discrete manufacturing," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 293-299, June.
    5. John J. Bartholdi, III & Donald D. Eisenstein, 2005. "Using Bucket Brigades to Migrate from Craft Manufacturing to Assembly Lines," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 7(2), pages 121-129, August.
    6. John J. Bartholdi & Donald D. Eisenstein, 1996. "A Production Line that Balances Itself," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 21-34, February.
    7. John J. Bartholdi & Leonid A. Bunimovich & Donald D. Eisenstein, 1999. "Dynamics of Two- and Three-Worker “Bucket Brigade” Production Lines," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 488-491, June.
    8. John J. Bartholdi & Donald D. Eisenstein & Robert D. Foley, 2001. "Performance of Bucket Brigades When Work Is Stochastic," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(5), pages 710-719, October.
    9. Armbruster, Dieter & Gel, Esma S., 2006. "Bucket brigades revisited: Are they always effective?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(1), pages 213-229, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Soondo Hong, 2018. "The effects of picker-oriented operational factors on hand-off delay in a bucket brigade order picking system," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 40(3), pages 781-808, July.
    2. Yun Fong Lim & Bingnan Lu & Rowan Wang & Wenjia Zhang, 2020. "Flexibly Serving A Finite Number of Heterogeneous Jobs in A Tandem System," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(6), pages 1431-1447, June.
    3. Peng Wang & Kai Pan & Zhenzhen Yan & Yun Fong Lim, 2022. "Managing Stochastic Bucket Brigades on Discrete Work Stations," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 358-373, January.
    4. Zheng Wang & Jiuh‐Biing Sheu & Chung‐Piaw Teo & Guiqin Xue, 2022. "Robot Scheduling for Mobile‐Rack Warehouses: Human–Robot Coordinated Order Picking Systems," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 98-116, January.

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