The Flexibility of Production Processes: A General Framework

TLDR

Flexibility of production systems has been studied through various models, defined as a hedge against environmental diversity, and distinguished from diversity itself. The paper proposes a general framework for modeling and analyzing flexibility in production systems. The framework is applied to analyze load‑imbalance effects on parallel machines. The framework demonstrates that conventional strategic properties of flexibility arise naturally, allows existing models to be interpreted within it, and clarifies flexibility’s role in queuing‑network and lot‑sizing production models.

Abstract

Various models have been developed over the years to analyze the many facets of the flexibility of production and operations systems. This paper proposes a general framework for the modeling and analysis of flexibility. The argument hinges upon the distinction between flexibility—a property of the technology—and diversity—a property of the environment in which the technology is operated. Flexibility is characterized as a hedge against diversity. Intuitive strategic properties that are conventionally attributed to flexibility are shown to follow directly from this framework. As illustrated by the different examples that are discussed, many existing models can be naturally interpreted in this context. As an application, the effect of load imbalance on a set of parallel machines is analyzed. The problem sheds light on the role of flexibility in queuing network and lot-sizing models of production.