We study the problem of how to design a sparse flexible process structure in a balanced and symmetrical production system to match supply with random demand more effectively. Our goal is to provide an optimal design, i.e., the sparsest design, to achieve (1-ε)-optimality relative to the fully...

Process flexibility has been widely adopted as an effective strategy to improve responsiveness to demand uncertainty. Many algorithms for constructing sparse flexibility designs with good theoretical guarantees have been developed for balanced and symmetrical production systems, which assume...