Study on Aircraft Assembly Line Balancing Problem Based on Mobile Workers

Author(s):  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Bo Xin ◽  
Pan Wang

In order to improve the balance and load equilibrium of aircraft assembly lines, and to enhance the management of on-site resources, a Type-E balancing method was proposed based on the mobile operation of assembly personnel in the aircraft assembly line. This method was aimed to minimize the smoothness index of the overall assembly line and each assembly station, and also to minimize manpower costs. First, a model of personnel flow and an assembly line balancing model were constructed based on the characteristics of aircraft assembly lines. Next, an Accelerated Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (ABPSO) based on improved sig function was designed in order to improve the original stability and convergence of the standard binary particle swarm algorithm. Finally, the validity of the method was verified with a real fuselage assembly line and the results show the effectiveness.

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Yilmaz ◽  
Mustafa Yilmaz

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is balancing multi-manned assembly lines with load-balancing constraints in addition to conventional ones Most research works about the multi-manned assembly line balancing problems are focused on the conventional industrial measures that minimize total number of workers, number of multi-manned workstations or both. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a remedial constraint for the model to balance task load density for each worker in workstations. Findings – Comparisons between the proposed mathematical model and the existing multi-manned mathematical model show a quite promising better task load density performance for the proposed approach. Originality/value – In this paper, a mathematical model that combines the minimization of multi-manned stations, worker numbers and difference of task load density of workers is proposed for the first time.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1063293X2110655
Author(s):  
Yuling Jiao ◽  
Xue Deng ◽  
Mingjuan Li ◽  
Xiaocui Xing ◽  
Binjie Xu

Aiming at improving assembly line efficiency and flexibility, a balancing method of parallel U-shaped assembly line system is proposed. Based on the improved product priority diagram, the bidirectional priority value formula is obtained. Then, assembly lines are partitioned into z-q partitions and workstations are defined. After that, the mathematical model of the parallel U-shaped assembly line balancing problem is established. A heuristic algorithm based on bidirectional priority values is used to solve explanatory examples and test examples. It can be seen from the results and the effect indicators of the assembly line balancing problem that the heuristic algorithm is suitable for large balancing problems. The proposed method has higher calculation accuracy and shorter calculation time. The balancing effect of the parallel U-shaped assembly line is better than that of single U-shaped assembly line, which verifies the superiority of the parallel U-type assembly line and effectiveness of the proposed method. It provides a theoretical and practical reference for parallel U-type assembly line balancing problem.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianping Dou ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Xia Zhao

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a feasible sequence-oriented new discrete particle swarm optimization (NDPSO) algorithm with novel particles’ updating mechanism for solving simple assembly line balancing problems (SALBPs). Design/methodology/approach In the NDPSO, a task-oriented representation is adopted to solve type I and type II SALBPs, and a particle directly represents a feasible task sequence (FTS) as a permutation. Then, the particle (permutation) is updated as a whole using the geometric crossover based on the edit distance with swaps for two permutations. Furthermore, the fragment mutation with adaptive mutation probability is incorporated into the NDPSO to improve exploration ability. Findings Case study illustrates the effectiveness of the NDPSO. Comparative results between the NDPSO and existing real-encoded PSO (CPSO) and direct discrete PSO (DDPSO) against benchmark instances of type I SALBP and type II SALBP show promising higher performance of the proposed NDPSO. Originality/value A novel particles’ updating mechanism for FTS-encoded particle is proposed to solve the SALBPs. The comparative results indicate that updating of FTS as a whole seems superior to existing updating of FTS by fragment with respect to exploration ability for solving SALBPs. The novel particles’ updating mechanism is also applicable to generalized assembly line balancing problems.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofeng Hu ◽  
Chunaxun Wu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define new criteria for measuring workload smoothness of two-sided assembly lines and propose an algorithm to solve a two-sided assembly line balancing problem focusing on distributing the idle time and the workload as evenly as possible among the workstations. Design/methodology/approach This paper points out that the mean absolute deviation (MAD) and the smoothness index (SI) used to measure the workload smoothing in one-sided assembly lines are both inappropriate to evaluate the workload balance among workstations in two-sided assembly lines, as the idle time occur at the beginning and in the middle of a cycle within workstations. Then, the finish-time-based SI and MAD (FSI and FMAD) are defined, and a heuristic procedure based on the core mechanism of Moodie and Young method is proposed to smooth the assembly workload in two-sided assembly lines. Findings The computational results indicate that the proposed heuristic algorithm combined with the FMAD is effective in distributing the idle time and the workload among workstations as evenly as possible in two-sided assembly lines. Practical implications The two-sided assembly line balancing problem with the objective of the line efficiency can be effectively solved by the proposed approach. Originality/value The FMAD is proposed to effectively improve the workload smoothing in two-sided assembly lines.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaomei Hu ◽  
Yangyang Zhang ◽  
Ning Zeng ◽  
Dong Wang

Assembly line is widely used in manufacturing system. Assembly line balancing problem is a crucial question during design and management of assembly lines since it directly affects the productivity of the whole manufacturing system. The model of assembly line balancing problem is put forward and a general optimization method is proposed. The key data on assembly line balancing problem is confirmed, and the precedence relations diagram is described. A double objective optimization model based on takt time and smoothness index is built, and balance optimization scheme based on PSO algorithm is proposed. Through the simulation experiments of examples, the feasibility and validity of the assembly line balancing method based on PSO algorithm is proved.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 833-846
Author(s):  
Ashish Yadav ◽  
Ramawatar Kulhary ◽  
Rupesh Nishad ◽  
Sunil Agrawal

Purpose Parallel two-sided assembly lines are usually designed to produce large-sized products such as trucks and buses. In parallel two-sided assembly lines, both left and right sides of the line are used for manufacturing one or more products on two or more assembly lines located parallel to each other. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new mathematical model for the parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem that helps to evaluate and validate the balancing operations of the machines such as removal of tools and fixtures and reallocating the operators. Design/methodology/approach The proposed approach is explained with the help of an example problem. In all, 22 test problems are formed using the benchmark problems P9, P12, P16 and P24. The results obtained are compared among approaches of the task(s) shared, tool(s) shared and both tool(s) and task(s) shared for effect on efficiency as the performance measure. The solution presented here follows the exact solution procedure that is solved by Lingo 16 solver. Findings Based on the experiments, line efficiency decreases when only tools are shared and increases when only tasks are shared. Results indicate that by sharing tasks and tools together, better line efficiency is obtained with less cost of tools and fixtures. Practical implications According to the industrial aspect, the result of the study can be beneficial for assembly of the products, where tools and tasks are shared between parallel workstations of two or more parallel lines. Originality/value According to the author’s best knowledge, this paper is the first to address the tools and tasks sharing between any pair of parallel workstations.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document