A research of the stochastic U-type assembly line balancing problem

U-type assembly lines, as an important part of Lean Production and Just-in-time, have been applied widely in practice. The stochastic U-type assembly line balancing problem is studied in this paper. The genetic algorithm is designed to solve this problem. Benchmark problems are tested to evaluate the performance of the presented algorithm. Furthermore, considering six kinds of complex constraints between task units, the stochastic U-type assembly line balancing problem with complex constraints is proposed and solved by modified genetic algorithm. A case from car assembly is shown to explain its application.