The buffer allocation problem consists of a dynamical description of the underlying production process combined with stochastic processing times. The aim is to find optimal buffer sizes averaged over several samples. Starting from a time-discrete recursion we derive a time-continuous model supplemented with a stochastic process. The new model is used for simulation and optimization purposes as well. Numerical experiments show the efficiency of our approach compared to other optimization techniques. 
A continuous buffer allocation model using stochastic processes