An optimal piecewise-linear program for the U-line balancing problem with stochastic task times

The utilization of U-shaped layouts in place of the traditional straight-line configuration has become increasingly popular, with reported benefits of substantial improvements in productivity and quality. This paper examines the U-line balancing problem with stochastic task times. A chance-constrained, piecewise-linear, integer program is formulated to find the optimal solution. Various approaches used to identify a tight lower bound are also presented, as are operable extensions to the basic model. Computational results show that the proposed method is able to solve practical-sized problems.