Assembly line balancing problem : A comparative evaluation of heuristics and a computational assessment of objectives

Purpose The purpose of this study is to firstly investigate the efficiency of the most commonly used performance measures for minimizing the Number of Workstations (NWs) in approaches addressing Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem (SALBP) for both straight and U-shaped line. Secondly, this study aims to provide a comparative evaluation of 20 constructive heuristics to find solutions to the SALBP-1. Design/methodology/approach 200 problems are solved by 20 different constructive heuristics for both straight and U-shaped assembly line. Moreover, several comparisons have been made to evaluate the performance of constructive heuristics. Findings Minimizing the Smoothness Index (SI) is not necessarily equivalent to minimizing the NWs, therefore, it should not be used as the fitness function in approaches addressing the SALBP-1. Line efficiency (LE) and the idle time (IT) are indeed reliable performance measures for minimizing the NWs. The most promising heuristics for straight and U-shaped line configuratio...

[1]  Napsiah Ismail,et al.  A note on “A multi-objective genetic algorithm for solving assembly line balancing problem” , 2010 .

[2]  P. Sivasankaran,et al.  Literature review of assembly line balancing problems , 2014 .

[3]  Morteza Ghobakhloo,et al.  A technical comment on “a review on assembly sequence planning and assembly line balancing optimisation using soft computing approaches” , 2014 .

[4]  Alexandre Dolgui,et al.  A taxonomy of line balancing problems and their solutionapproaches , 2013 .

[5]  Joaquín Bautista,et al.  A dynamic programming based heuristic for the assembly line balancing problem , 2009, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[6]  Rapeepan Pitakaso,et al.  Differential evolution algorithm for simple assembly line balancing type 1 (SALBP-1) , 2015 .

[7]  Alysson M. Costa,et al.  Simple heuristics for the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem , 2010, Journal of Heuristics.

[8]  Talip Kellegöz,et al.  Balancing Lexicographic Multi-Objective Assembly Lines with Multi-Manned Stations , 2016 .

[9]  Albert Corominas,et al.  Assembly line balancing with incompatibilities and bounded workstation loads , 2000 .

[10]  Adil Baykasoglu,et al.  Multi-rule Multi-objective Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Straight and U Type Assembly Line Balancing Problems , 2006, J. Intell. Manuf..

[11]  Brahim Rekiek,et al.  State of art of optimization methods for assembly line design , 2002, Annu. Rev. Control..

[12]  Andreas C. Nearchou,et al.  Maximizing production rate and workload smoothing in assembly lines using particle swarm optimization , 2011 .

[13]  Armin Scholl,et al.  A survey on problems and methods in generalized assembly line balancing , 2006, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[14]  Ibrahim Kucukkoc,et al.  Comprehensive review and evaluation of heuristics and meta-heuristics for two-sided assembly line balancing problem , 2017, Comput. Oper. Res..

[15]  B. Naderi,et al.  The type E simple assembly line balancing problem: A mixed integer linear programming formulation , 2015, Comput. Oper. Res..

[16]  María Jesús Álvarez,et al.  A new heuristic-based bi-objective simulated annealing method for U-shaped assembly line balancing , 2016 .

[17]  E. H. Bowman.  Assembly-Line Balancing by Linear Programming , 1960 .

[18]  Napsiah Ismail,et al.  A new heuristic method to solve straight assembly line balancing problem , 2012 .

[19]  Timothy L. Urban,et al.  Note. Optimal Balancing of U-Shaped Assembly Lines , 1998 .

[20]  Tom Pape,et al.  Heuristics and lower bounds for the simple assembly line balancing problem type 1: Overview, computational tests and improvements , 2015, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[21]  J. Mukund Nilakantan,et al.  Robotic U-shaped assembly line balancing using particle swarm optimization , 2016 .

[22]  Tamás Koltai,et al.  Application of the results of simple assembly line balancing models in practice: the case of a bicycle manufacturer , 2014, Int. J. Comput. Integr. Manuf..

[23]  Adil Baykasoğlu,et al.  Discovering task assignment rules for assembly line balancing via genetic programming , 2015 .

[24]  Mostafa Zandieh,et al.  Assembly line balancing by a new multi-objective differential evolution algorithm based on TOPSIS , 2011 .

[25]  Alysson M. Costa,et al.  Improved integer programming models for simple assembly line balancing and related problems , 2018, Int. Trans. Oper. Res..

[26]  Nils Boysen,et al.  A classification of assembly line balancing problems , 2007, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[27]  Napsiah Ismail,et al.  A new heuristic method based on CPM in SALBP , 2011 .

[28]  Mohammad Hossein Fazel Zarandi,et al.  Fuzzy adaptive genetic algorithm for multi-objective assembly line balancing problems , 2015, Appl. Soft Comput..

[29]  Armin Scholl,et al.  State-of-the-art exact and heuristic solution procedures for simple assembly line balancing , 2006, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[30]  Muhammad Razif Abdullah Make,et al.  A review of two-sided assembly line balancing problem , 2017 .

[31]  Bilal Toklu,et al.  A priority rule-based constructive heuristic and an improvement method for balancing assembly lines with parallel multi-manned workstations , 2015 .

[32]  Nai-Chieh Wei,et al.  A solution procedure for type E simple assembly line balancing problem , 2011, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[33]  Maghsud Solimanpur,et al.  Using the Taguchi method to optimize the differential evolution algorithm parameters for minimizing the workload smoothness index in simple assembly line balancing , 2013, Math. Comput. Model..

[34]  Hadi Gökçen,et al.  A Network Model for Parallel Line Balancing Problem , 2007 .