An empirical investigation of the two-moment approximation for production lines

摘要: Abstract Since Muth (1973) it has generally been accepted that the throughput of production lines with variable processing times depends primarily on first two moments time distribution. However, several recent studies have suggested differences in higher may lead to significant throughput. In order shed light this question, we examine applicability two-moment approximation over a variety types (both serial and assembly) distributions. We find (on 5%) even among commonly used probability distributions, large (as as 28%) highly skewed kurtotic also distributions increase number stations line coefficient variation times.