Multi-rule multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm for straight and U type assembly line balancing problems

The task of balancing of assembly lines is of considerable industrial importance. It consists of assigning operations to workstations in a production line in such a way that (1) no assembly precedence constraint is violated, (2) no workstations in the line takes longer than a predefined cycle time to perform all tasks assigned to it, and (3) as few workstations as possible are needed to perform all the tasks in the set. This paper presents a new multiple objective simulated annealing (SA) algorithm for simple (line) and U type assembly line balancing problems with the aim of maximizing smoothness index and maximizing the line performance (or minimizing the number of workstations). The proposed algorithm makes use of task assignment rules in constructing feasible solutions. The proposed algorithm is tested and compared with literature test problems. The proposed algorithm found the optimal solutions for each problem in short computational times. A detailed performance analysis of the selected task assignment rules is also given in the paper.