Incorporating Preferences to a Multi-objective Ant Colony Algorithm for Time and Space Assembly Line Balancing

We present an extension of a multi-objective algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimisation to solve a more realistic variant of a classical industrial problem: Time and Space Assembly Line Balancing. We study the influence of incorporating some domain knowledge by guiding the search process of the algorithm with preferences-based dominance. Our approach is compared with other techniques, and every algorithm tackles a real-world instance from a Nissan plant. We prove that the embedded expert knowledge is even more justified in a real-world problem.