Balancing and sequencing of assembly lines

The book addresses decision problems in flow-line production systems, commonly used in various industrial settings for manufacturing diverse products. These systems often involve assembling multiple models of a standardized product, distinguished by optional components and equipment, on mixed-model assembly lines. Two primary decision problems arise: the assembly line balancing problem, which involves distributing assembly work among different stations, and the mixed-model sequencing problem, focused on determining the operating sequence of models to fulfill customer demands. Part I discusses and classifies these problems, defining various balancing and sequencing versions within a hierarchical planning framework. Given that these optimization challenges are NP-hard, extensive research has aimed to develop procedures that yield acceptable solutions in a reasonable computation time. Part II surveys existing methods and introduces several promising new solution techniques for both problem types. It also includes comprehensive numerical investigations demonstrating the effectiveness of these new approaches.