Research Papers

• A Production Line that Balances Itself, with John J. Bartholdi, III. We describe Bucket Brigade Production Lines and show how they can be made self-balancing. Operations Research 44(1), 1996, special issue on ``New Directions in Operations Management''.
• Dynamics of 2- and 3-Worker ``Bucket Brigade Production Lines'', with John J. Bartholdi, III and Leonid A. Bunimovich. We detail the dynamics of 2- and 3-Worker Bucket Brigade Production Lines and give necessary and sufficient conditions for small lines to be self-balancing.   Operations Research 47(3), 1999.
• Performance of Bucket Brigades When Work is Stochastic, with John J. Bartholdi, III and Robert D. Foley . We describe Bucket Brigade Order Picking and its implementation at several sites.  Operations Research  49 (5) , 2001 .
• Separating Logistics Flows in the Chicago Public School System, with Ananth. V. Iyer. We describe a model and implementation of improving the logistics of the central Chicago Public School Warehouse Operation. Operations Research 44 (2), 1996.
• Garbage Collection in Chicago --- A Dynamic Scheduling Model, with Ananth. V. Iyer. We describe a statistical model and Markov decision model of the Chicago City Garbage Collection Problem. Management Science 43 (7), 1997.
• Analysis and Optimal Design of Discrete Order Picking Technologies Along a Line, Aug. 2006. Submitted.
• Recovering Cyclic Schedules Using Dynamic Produce Up-To Policies.  We describe a policy that recovers cyclic schedules.  Operations Research 53(4), 2005.
• Chaos and convergence in bucket brigades with finite walk-back velocities with J. Bartholdi and Y. F. Lim, working paper 2005. A mathematical analysis showing that if a bucket brigade is configured pathologically then fully chaotic behavior is possible.
• Bucket brigades on in-tree assembly networks.  with J. Bartholdi and Y. F. Lim (2006), The European Journal of Operational Research 168(3):870-879, special issue on balancing assembly and transfer lines. This shows how to use bucket brigades on a "tree" of merging sub-assembly lines so that all the sub-assembly lines are balanced and, moreover, they are all synchronized so that the assembly network produces product at regular, predictable intervals.
• Using bucket brigades to migrate from craft manufacturing to assembly lines. with J. Bartholdi (2005), Manufacturing and Service Operations Management 7(2):121-129. A case study describing how a manufacturer of tractors used bucket brigades to migrate from craft assembly (one person assembles one tractor) to a semi-automated assembly line.
• Analysis and optimal design of discrete orderpicking technologies along a line.  We describe the optimal way to locate depot(s) and layout items along a pick line.