[blackflame]

That's what optimum parallelism is. They are collaborating to process N number as many items at the same time in the most optimum way. They also are coordinating to prevent someone from grabbing the same item or placing the same item in the same place. The conveyor belt itself is a ring buffer.

The assembly line principle can also be applied to the concept of threads. Workers collaborate by handing items off to one or more workers(threads) down the line. Thread pools are just micromanagers constantly reassigning the poor workers, but at least the make a lot of friens collaborating.