Strong Asymptotic Optimality of Focused Factory

In this paper we consider a production enterprise that has several factories. This enterprise manufactures several diierent types of products on a produce to order basis. The level of operational control available within each factory with respect to scheduling is limited. Hence, it is of interest to nd the appropriate allocation of the diierent types of products to the diierent factories. In a focused factory only similar products will be produced within the same factory. We formulate a multiple server, multiple job class queueing model for the production enterprise. Using this model, we show that the traditional wisdom of forming focused factories to process similar tasks that reduce uctuations in processing times is strongly asymptotically optimal. Suggestions for further work on this topic are summarized as well.