Assembly line balancing (ALB) and sequencing is an active area of optimization research in operations management. The concept of an assembly line (AL) came to the fact when the finished product is inclined to the perception of product modularity. Usually interchangeable parts of the final product are assembled in sequence using best possibly designed logistics in an AL. The initial stage of con...

The present article focuses on the application of a procedure based on ant colonies to solve an assembly line balancing problem. After an introduction to assembly line problems, the problem under study is presented: the Time and Space constrained Assembly Line Balancing Problem (TSALBP); and a basic model of one of its variants is put forward for study. Subsequently, an ant algorithm is present...

In this paper a new bf oriented tabu search version is presented. It can be used to improve arbitrary existing sequential or parallel tabu search procedures for solving especially long-term production planning problems. As an example the Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem 2 is considered where an eecient tabu search heuristic exists. Although this sequential procedure reach already good res...

Assembly line balancing is a key for organizational productivity in terms of reduced number of workstations for a given production volume per shift. Mixed-model assembly line balancing is a reality in many organizations. The mixed-model assembly line balancing problem comes under combinatorial category. So, in this paper, an attempt has been made to develop three genetic algorithms for the mixe...

The assembly line balancing problem is a non deterministic polynomial type planning problem for mass production. Layout design changes constitute a major decision that yields investment for assembly operations and numerous heuristics have been reported in the literature for solving the line balancing problems. U-shaped assembly layout offers several benefits over traditional straight-line layou...

In this paper, a goal programming model for the simple U-line balancing (ULB) problem is developed. The model is based on the integer programming formulation developed by Urban [Urban, Note: Optimal balancing of U-shaped assembly lines, Management Science 44(5) (1998) 738–741] for the ULB problem and the goal model of Deckro and Rangachari [Deckro, Rangachari, A goal approach to assembly line b...