  Clearing functions (CFs), which express a mathematical relationship between the expected throughput of a production facility in a planning period and its workload (or work-in-progress, WIP) in that period have shown considerable promise for modeling WIP-dependent cycle times in production planning. While steady-state queueing models are commonly used to derive analytic expressions for CFs, the finite length of planning periods calls their validity into question. We apply a different approach to propose a mechanistic model for one-resource, one-product factory shop based on the analogy between the operation of machine and enzyme molecule. The model is reduced to a singularly perturbed system of two differential equations for slow (WIP) and fast (busy machines) variables, respectively. The analysis of this slow-fast system finds that CF is nothing but a result of the asymptotic expansion of the slow invariant manifold. The validity of CF is ultimately determined by how small is the parameter multiplying the derivative of the fast variable. It is shown that sufficiently small characteristic ratio 'working machines : WIP' guarantees the applicability of CF approximation in unsteady-state operation. 
Clearing function in the context of the invariant manifold method