Effect of worker assignment patterns and variability of work content on the performance of bucket brigade serial lines

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of variability in work content, worker assignment patterns and the number of stations on the production rate, mean and variance of the cycle time and variance of the time between outputs in bucket brigade serial lines. To study bucket brigade lines with discrete stations, a simulated experimental design approach was used. The simulation model was built in Arena. The experimental results were analyzed using ANOVA to determine significant main and interaction effects. Performance plots were developed to provide a clearer understanding of the main and interaction effects. Finally, based on detailed statistical and qualitative analyses, a set of principles that would aid in designing bucket brigade serial lines was developed.; Findings and conclusions. The experimental findings seem to indicate that as we increase the number of stations, the variability in the work content becomes less significant and the stochastic line behaves more like a deterministic line. This research also showed that the LMH, MLH, and LHM patterns of sequencing the workers in a three-worker bucket brigade serial line seem to produce better performance than the other assignment patterns. L, M, and H in the patterns represent workers with low, medium and high velocities, respectively. The experimental results also showed that the effect of variability in work content on the performance measures is more pronounced when the number of stations is small, and as we increase the number of stations this effect of variability in work content diminishes. This study has provided some important practical guidelines for sequencing workers in a serial line, and shown that the number of discrete stations could play a key role in improving the line performance when the work content is stochastic.