Dispatching Rules for Allocation of Component Types to Machines in the Automated Assembly of Printed Circuit Boards

In this paper, we propose a model and algorithms to solve a load balancing problem on a printed circuit board assembly line. On this line of two identical machines, the problem of allocation of component types to machines is analyzed in detail. Twenty eight dispatching rules are developed and extensive computational experimentation is performed. It has been observed that the imbalance per board increases as a function of the number of board types. Furthermore, the greedy dispatching rules perform better than the construction dispatching rules.