A decomposition method for transfer line life cycle cost optimisation

A new method is described to search best parameters of a transfer line so that the cost of each manufactured part will be minimised. The synchronised transfer lines with parallel machining are considered. Such lines are widely used in mass and large-scale mechanical production. The objective is to minimise the line life cycle cost per part under the given productivity and technological constraints. The design decisions to be optimised are: number of spindles and workstations. This will be accomplished by defining subsets of tasks which are performed by one spindle head and cutting conditions for each spindle. The paper focuses on a mathematical model of the problem and methods used to solve it. This model is formulated in terms of mixed (discrete and non-linear) programming and graph theory. A special decomposition scheme based on the parametric decomposition technique is proposed. For solving the sub-problems obtained after decomposition, a Branch-and-Bound algorithm as well as a shortest path technique are used.