Two extensions for the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem: parallel stations and collaborative approach

In this article, we introduce two new variants of the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem that allow parallelization of and collaboration between heterogeneous workers. These new line balancing approaches introduce an additional level of flexibility in the assignment and planning process, which may be particularly useful in practical situations where the aim is to progressively integrate slow or limited workers in conventional assembly lines. We present linear models and heuristic procedures for these two new problems. Computational results show the efficiency of the proposed approaches and the efficacy of the studied layouts in different situations.