This paper studies the effect of the number of component stations (parallelism), work transfer, processing time distributions, buffers and buffer allocation schemes on throughput and interdeparture time variability of assembly systems, As an alternative to work transfer, variability transfer is introduced and its effectiveness is assessed. Previous research has indicated that the optimal throughput displays an anomaly at certain processing time distributions and, this phenomenon is now thoroughly analyzed and the underlying details are uncovered. This study also yields several new findings that convey important practical implications.