Assembly line balancing algorithms: computation comparisons

A comparative investigation is performed on the (optimizing) algorithms which have appeared in the literature to solve the basic assembly line balancing problem. Each algorithm is subjected to a series of test problems, and the computation times are noted It was observed that problems of 20 tasks were within the capabilities of most algorithms studied. Solutions could he found for 40-task problems if the average number of tasks per station was no more than four. For the 20-task problems, branch and bound algorithms performed the best for problems with four or more tasks per station, while a particular dynamic programming formulation performed best on problems with an average of two tasks per station Details of a newest node search branch and bound algorithm, where arcs represent stations is presented. This algorithm performed successfully in the investigation.