Heuristic methods for cost-oriented assembly line balancing: A survey

This paper is concerned with cost-oriented assembly line balancing. This problem occurs especially in the final assembly of automotives, consumer durables or personal computers, where production is still very labour-intensive, and where the wage rates depend on the requirements and qualifications to fulfil the work. First a short problem description is presented. After that a classification of existent and new heuristic methods for solving this problem is given. The heuristic methods presented in this paper are described in detail. A new priority rule called ‘best change of idle cost’ is proposed. This priority rule differs from the existent priority rules because it is the only one which considers that production costs are the result of both production time and cost rates. Furthermore a new sophisticated method called ‘exact solution of sliding problem windows’ is presented. The solution process is illustrated by an example, showing how this metaheuristic works together with an exact method.