scholarly journals A New Self-Balancing Assembly Line Based on Collaborative Ant Behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pyung-Hoi Koo
Keyword(s):  
Assembly Line ◽  
Flow Line ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
Task Assignment ◽  
Assembly System ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Ant Behavior ◽  
Assembly Cell ◽  
New System

In most mass-production assembly lines, workers perform a set of tasks repetitively predefined by assembly line balancing techniques. The static task assignment often leads to low productivity when the assembly system faces disruptions or uncertainties such as machine breakdown and uneven worker capabilities. The idea of bucket brigades (BB) has been introduced to address the static assignment problems where cooperative behavior of ants is applied to flow line control. This paper examines possible efficiency losses associated with the existing BB-based assembly cell and presents an improved version for assembly cells under uncertain environments. The new system attempts to enhance productivity by assigning assembly tasks to workers dynamically and possibly adding buffers for decoupling consecutive workers. The proposed assembly system is evaluated through simulation experiments under various manufacturing environments. The experimental results show that the new system provides higher productivity than the naïve BB-based assembly cell as well as traditional assembly cells, especially for uncertain assembly environments.

Productivity Study and Line Balancing of GGMG & CALICO Production Line

2012 ◽  
Vol 576 ◽  
pp. 700-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartini Mustafa ◽  
Ahmad Razlan Yusoff ◽  
M. Yusoff Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Cycle Time ◽  
Production Line ◽  
Assembly Line ◽  
Flow Line ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
Line Balancing ◽  
Buffer Allocation ◽  
Resource Assignment ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Current Case

Assembly line balancing is assumed to have fixed task within specified task time during the initial stage of the mass production. The problem of current case study of this assembly line was the production line cannot meet the expected output plan with imbalance station cycle time. In this paper, productivity study and line balancing is applied to improve production line of GGMG & CALICO. The desired cycle time defined using the Standard Time Data (STD) which required the person to perform assign task till completion by defining the performance rating of person. The proposed solution proved by the implementation analysis conducted in the research. The results showed that the productivity of production line which is tremendously increased within 50% after implementation. There are six factors identified during the study which are bottleneck stations, workpiece flow, line layout, ergonomic, resource assignment and buffer allocation.

A Heuristic Approach for Type 2 Assembly Line Balancing Problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 789-790 ◽  
pp. 1296-1300
Author(s):  
Bukhari Pakeeza ◽  
Ahmad Riaz ◽  
Muhammad Umer
Keyword(s):  
Assembly Line ◽  
Experimental Testing ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
Task Assignment ◽  
Line Balancing ◽  
Cycle Times ◽  
Time In Literature ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing Problem

An assembly system consists of work stations where specific tasks are carried in such a way that last station gives the complete product. An assembly line balancing Problem (ALBP) involves optimally assigning tasks among workstations with respect to some performance objective. ALBP problems are of NP hard nature and in literature; many efforts are there to solve the problem efficiently through heuristics. This paper proposes a heuristic algorithm for solving type 2 ALBP for single objective optimization. The proposed algorithm assigns tasks to a fixed no of stations with objective of minimizing cycle time. In literature, type 2 ALBP is mostly solved through Type 1 problem. However, this paper proposes a direct approach to Type 2 ALBP. The effectiveness is tested through application on Gunther problem of 35 tasks with forty five precedence constraints. The task assignment for six stations is computed and it shows competitive performance. The number of fixed stations is varied and corresponding cycle times are computed. The algorithm is also tested on a real industrial problem of 24 tasks. The experimental testing indicates tendency of the proposed algorithm to give effective optimal results.

Finding the best possible solutions to simple assembly line balancing problems

1997 ◽  
Vol 211 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
X Ma
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Assembly Line ◽  
Flow Line ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
Line Balancing ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing Problem ◽  
Maximum Production Rate ◽  
Identification Techniques ◽  
Simple Assembly

Assembly line balancing (ALB) is an important aspect in the design of many flow line type manufacturing systems which may or may not be assembly oriented. It involves essentially assigning individual tasks into stations such that certain constraints are satisfied and some specified objectives achieved. Although this problem has attracted a great deal of research effort over the past forty years, it still remains unsolved. This paper presents a computer-based method for the simple assembly line balancing problem (SALBP). For a given problem, the method makes use of some efficient and systematic search and identification techniques to establish task trees for individual stations and to develop a station tree for multiple solutions. Different from all known existing assembly line balancing methods, this method aims at finding the best possible solutions that lead to the maximum production rate and the minimum station workload variation. The essential and distinct concepts adopted by the method are described in this paper, along with its step-by-step execution procedure and an illustrative example. Since the method does not involve difficult mathematics, many industrial practitioners can easily understand it and appreciate its effectiveness.

A Method for Setting the Optimal Production Status Based on Genetic Algorithm in a Discrete Assembly System

2011 ◽  
Vol 421 ◽  
pp. 717-723
Author(s):  
Liang Dong ◽  
Zhen Guo Yan ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Kun Peng Du ◽  
Yan Ping Wang
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Resource Utilization ◽  
Assembly Line ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
Idle Time ◽  
Line Balancing ◽  
Assembly System ◽  
Utilization Rate ◽  
Optimal Production ◽  
General Flow

In a discrete assembly system, setting its optimal production status is one of the key works in assembly line balancing. Based on analyzing the objectives of assembly line control, a general flow for setting the optimal production status is proposed, and a method to identify rapidly the setting objects of production status is introduced. Then an optimal configuration solution for production status and its solving method in a station of an assembly line are established based on the genetic algorithm. At last, a wing assembly line is set as an example to validate this method, and the result shows that this method can provide a solution to optimize production status parameters for each station in this assembly line, which can reduce the resource idle time and cost, and so its resource utilization rate is improved.

scholarly journals Multi-Manned Assembly Line Balancing: Workforce Synchronization for Big Data Sets through Simulated Annealing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2523
Author(s):  
Francesco Pilati ◽  
Emilio Ferrari ◽  
Mauro Gamberi ◽  
Silvia Margelli
Keyword(s):  
Simulated Annealing ◽  
Assembly Line ◽  
Simulated Annealing Algorithm ◽  
Programming Model ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
Task Assignment ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Mixed Integer ◽  
Solution Quality ◽  
Line Design

The assembly of large and complex products such as cars, trucks, and white goods typically involves a huge amount of production resources such as workers, pieces of equipment, and layout areas. In this context, multi-manned workstations commonly characterize these assembly lines. The simultaneous operators’ activity in the same assembly station suggests considering compatibility/incompatibility between the different mounting positions, equipment sharing, and worker cooperation. The management of all these aspects significantly increases the balancing problem complexity due to the determination of the start/end times of each task. This paper proposes a new mixed-integer programming model to simultaneously optimize the line efficiency, the line length, and the workload smoothness. A customized procedure based on a simulated annealing algorithm is developed to effectively solve this problem. The aforementioned procedure is applied to the balancing of the real assembly line of European sports car manufacturers distinguished by 665 tasks and numerous synchronization constraints. The experimental results present remarkable performances obtained by the proposed procedure both in terms of solution quality and computation time. The proposed approach is the practical reference for efficient multi-manned assembly line design, task assignment, equipment allocation, and mounting position management in the considered industrial fields.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document