No abstract

The lively field of assembly line configuration and adjustment often have a significant impact on the performance of manufacturing systems. In this context, assembly line balancing problems (ALBPs) are widely cited in the literature. An ALBP consists of distributing the total product manufacturing workload among the stations along the manufacturing line. Previous research has focused on developing effective and fast solution methods for solving simple assembly line balancing problems (SALBP) and their various extensions. Each extension is motivated by several real-life applications and the need for solving precise practical problems. In this article, another interesting extension of SALBP (named in this work 'Task Restrictions Assembly Line Balancing Problem' of type 2 (TRALBP-2)) is focused on. In this situation, the number of stations is known and the objective is to minimise cycle time where both precedence and zoning constraints between tasks must be satisfied. For the resolution of such problem, an innovative hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) scheme hybridised with a local search procedure is implemented. This genetic algorithm consists of a new representation scheme and a special genetic operator. The effectiveness of the proposed HGA is evaluated through various sets of instances which are (1) theoretically and randomly generated, (2) collected from the literature and (3) based on a real case study of an automotive cable manufacturer. Comparison of the proposed HGA results with CPLEX software for the TRALBP-2 demonstrates that, in a reasonable time, the proposed HGA generates consistent solutions that are very close to their optimal ones. Therefore, the proposed HGA approach is very effective and competitive.

Abstract:Purpose: In this paper, a combined Production Line Design (PLD) process which includes many design aspects is presented, developed and validated.Design/methodology/approach: The PLD process is based on the SADT (Structured Analysis and Design Technique) diagram and the Axiomatic Design (AD) method. Findings:The results of the validation indicated that the production line designed by this process is outperformed the initial line of the company.Practical implications: For a purpose of validation, this proposed process has been applied in a manufacturing company and it has been validated by simulation. Originality/value:Recently, the problems of production line design (PLD) have attracted the attention of many researchers. However, only a few studies have treated the PLD which includes all design aspects. In this work, a combined PLD porcess is presented. It should be noted that the proposed process is simple and effective.

No abstract

In this paper, an Assembly Line Balancing Problem (ALBP) is presented in a real-world automotive cables manufacturer company. This company found it necessary to balance its line, since it needs to increase the production rate. In this ALBP, the number of stations is known and the objective is to minimize cycle time where both precedence and zoning constrains must be satisfied. This problem is formulated as a binary linear program (BLP). Since this problem is NP-hard, an innovative Genetic Algorithm (GA) is implemented. The full factorial design is used to obtain the better combination GA parameters and a simple convergence experimental study is performed on the stopping criteria to reduce computational time. Comparison of the proposed GA results with CPLEX software shows that, in a reasonable time, the GA generates consistent solutions that are very close to their optimal ones. Therefore, the proposed GA approach is very effective and competitive.

No abstract

In general, assembly lines, allow low production costs, reduced cycle times and accurate quality levels. Assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) is about how to group the assembly activities, which have to be performed in an assembly task, into workstations, so that the total assembly time required at each workstation is approximately the same (cycle time). In this paper, an ALBP is studied in a real-world automotive cables manufacturer company. This company found it necessary to balance its line, since it needs to increase the production rate. In this line type, the number of stations is known and the objective is to minimize cycle time where both precedence and zoning constrains must be satisfied. For this purpose, a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) based on genetic algorithm scheme and local search procedures is implemented and fully characterized. The results of comparative studies with CPLEX software exact solutions show that the proposed HGA approach is very effective and competitive Keywords-Assembly line balancing problem; precedence and zoning constrains; cycle time; hybrid genetic algorithm approach; real-world case study

No abstract