The instability of last-buffer-first-serve scheduling policy for capacitated re-entrant lines

This paper demonstrates through an example, that the last-buffer-first-serve scheduling policy is unstable, when applied to re-entrant lines with finite buffering capacity. The issue is important because, contrary to typical modeling assumptions, all contemporary production systems operate under substantial buffering capacity constraints. Moreover, as these environments advance towards higher levels of material-handling automation, the effect of these constraints on the system operation will continuously increase.