Journal
ASSEMBLY AUTOMATION
Volume 37, Issue 1, Pages 34-50Publisher
EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1108/AA-02-2016-016
Keywords
Simulated annealing; Assembly line balancing; Mixed-model production; Multi-manned workstations
Funding
- Kermanshah branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran
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Purpose - This paper aims to study a generalized type of mixed-model assembly line with multi-manned workstations where multiple workers simultaneously perform different tasks on the same product. This special kind of assembly line is usually utilized to assemble different models of large products, such as buses and trucks, on the same production line. Design/methodology/approach - To solve the mixed-model multi-manned assembly line balancing problem optimally, a new mixed-integer-programming (MIP) model is presented. The proposed MIP model is nondeterministic polynomial-time (NP)-hard, and as a result, a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is developed to find the optimal or near-optimal solution in a small amount of computation time. Findings - The performance of the proposed algorithm is examined for several test problems in terms of solution quality and running time. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a satisfactory performance from computational time efficiency and solution accuracy. Originality/value - This research is the very first study that minimizes the number of workers and workstations simultaneously, with a higher priority set for the number of workers, in a mixed-model multi-manned assembly line setting using a novel MIP model and an SA algorithm.
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