Improve assembly line balancing by changing cycle time
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Chao, Yongsheng; Sun, Wenlei
- Source
- 2016 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation Mechatronics and Automation (ICMA), 2016 IEEE International Conference on. :100-105 Aug, 2016
- Subject
- Bioengineering
Robotics and Control Systems
Signal Processing and Analysis
Workstations
Linear programming
Production
Indexes
Smoothing methods
Time factors
Optimization
assembly line
balancing
variable cycle time
penalty factor
- Language
- ISSN
- 2152-744X
Assembly line balancing belongs to a type of combinatorial optimization problems. It is affected by many factors. Thus some assembly lines are difficult to obtain solutions with high balancing under the fixed cycle time. A mathematical model is presented to improve the balancing of assembly lines by altering the cycle time. Considering the slack time and smoothness, an objective function is formulated under the fixed cycle time. Based on the objective function, a new slack time function and smoothing index function combining a penalty factor are developed. A sample is used to compare assembly line balancing under the fixed and variable cycle time and demonstrates that the solution under the variable cycle time is optimal. The proposed method provides flexibility for decision makers to balance assembly lines with low balancing.