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Buffers in production/construction operations protect down-stream operations from up-stream variation. That idea is well understood. The practice of setting and placing buffers is generally understood. This paper describes a simulation approach for capturing the nature of the project environment to establish buffers.
Design of Work in Process Buffers in Repetitive Building and Electrical Project
Vicente Gonzales, et al
The simulation was based on the lean construction simulation "The Parade of Trades". The simulation was applied to a case study for building homes.
Actual cycle times exceeded plan results for the unbuffered base case. This was compared to a buffered case. The buffer sizes varied for each of the operations in the sequence. Total cycle time was cut from 64 days to 55 days.
This looks promising. It looks to me that some simple tools are needed for project participants to design buffers on their project.
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