Buffer management

Concept

Deciding where to place buffers of stock or time in a production system and how big to make them, so that disturbances do not stop the bottleneck or the customer delivery.

Description

Buffers are stocks of parts or reserves of time that decouple steps in a process, so that a short stop in one does not at once stop the next. Buffer management is the choice of where buffers sit, how large they are and how they are watched.

Too small a buffer means starvation, where a step runs out of work, and blocking, where a step cannot pass on its output. Too large a buffer ties up capital and hides problems. In the theory of constraints, the most important buffer protects the bottleneck, because lost time there is lost for the whole plant. Teams watch how full the buffer is: a buffer that is often empty shows a problem upstream, one that is always full shows a problem downstream. Simulation is often used to test buffer sizes before a line is built.

Related topics in brief

• iFAKT GmbH · Related to · Organization
  Stuttgart-based consulting company and software specialist for Industry 4.0, founded in 2001, that helps manufacturers plan and optimize production and logistics processes; developer of the Polaris software.
• Theory of constraints (TOC) · Related to · Concept
  A management approach by Eliyahu Goldratt which says that every system has one constraint that limits its output. Improving anything else does not raise output.
• Bottleneck (production) · Related to · Concept
  The resource or process step that limits how much work can pass through a production system in a given period; after a disruption the bottleneck can shift to another machine, inspection step, tool or person.
• Work in progress (WIP) · Related to · Concept
  Work in progress is material or product that has started its production route but is not yet finished; too much WIP ties up material and space and hides problems in the flow.
• Safety stock · Related to · Concept
  Extra inventory held to cover uncertainty in demand or supply, so that a delay or a spike does not stop production or delivery. It costs money, so its size is a balance.
• Factory simulation · Related to · Concept
  A controlled model of how work moves through part of a factory, using current operating rules, resources, orders and normal variation, so a proposed change such as an extra shift, new machine or smaller buffer can be tested before it is made.

Glossary

Experts and companies for this topic

• Mirko Peters · Microsoft MVP

Maintained by Mirko Peters (Microsoft MVP) · Last updated: 2026-11-11