On Assembly Line Balancing

This paper gives a simple method for finding an optimal assignment of operations to work stations when the order of operations is specified. It is shown that the problem with a specific ordering can be formulated as an assignment problem or as a shortest-route problem for which an inspection-type solution is available. The more general problem, when it is possible to enumerate all feasible orderings of operations, can then be handled by repeating the required calculations for all such orderings.