Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: An assembly line is a manufacturing process commonly used in the production of commodity goods. The assembly process is divided into elementary tasks that are sequentially performed at serially arranged workstations. Among the various challenges that must be addressed during the design and operation of an assembly line, the assembly line balancing problem involves the assignment of tasks to different workstations. In its simplest form, this problem aims to distribute assembly operations among the workstations efficiently. An efficient line is one that optimizes a specific objective function, usually associated with maximizing throughput or minimizing resource requirements. In this study, we adopt a bi-objective approach to find a Pareto set of efficient solutions balancing throughput and resource requirements. To address this problem, we propose a multi-objective evolutionary method, complemented by single- and multi-objective local search procedures that leverage a polynomially solvable case of the problem. We then compare the results of these methods, including their hybridizations, through a computational experiment demonstrating the ability to achieve high-quality solutions.
Source: Mathematics
DOI: 10.3390/math13203336
Authors: Jordi Pereira, Mariona Vilà
Institutions: UPF Barcelona School of Management, EAE Business School
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,137
OpenAlex ID: W4415349685