A novel line balancing problem is considered. It differs from assembly line balancing problems in that the operations of each workstation are partitioned into blocks of simultaneously executed (parallel) operations. The blocks of each workstation are executed sequentially. For the line design stage considered in this paper, the compatibility (inclusion and exclusion) constraints for grouping operations into blocks and workstations as well as precedence constraints are known. The goal is to minimize a weighted sum of the number of workstations and the number of blocks while achieving a desired cycle time and satisfying all the constraints. The developed exact and heuristic methods are based on a mixed-integer programming approach. Experimental results are reported.

International audienceThe paper deals with optimal balancing transfer lines where the operations in each workstation are grouped into blocks. All operations of the same block are executed simultaneously by one spindle head. Spindle heads of the same workstation are activated sequentially. The workstation time is the sum of the processing times of its blocks. The problem is to find the best assignment of operations to blocks and assignment of blocks to workstations that leads to the minimal transfer line cost (a weighted sum of blocks and workstation numbers). The solution must provide a desired productivity rate (cycle time). It must also satisfy precedence and compatibility constraints. Two heuristic algorithms based on the COMSOAL technique are proposed. Results from computer testing are reported

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