Article ID: | iaor1992507 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 11 |
Start Page Number: | 23 |
End Page Number: | 34 |
Publication Date: | Sep 1991 |
Journal: | International Journal of Operations & Production Management |
Authors: | Min Hokey, Shin Dooyoung |
Keywords: | line balancing |
Recognising the enormous potential of just-in-time (JIT) concepts for boosting productivity and quality, an increasing number of US and European firms consider adopting JIT concepts in manufacturing. However, the transfer of a manufacturing policy from traditional to JIT always requires radical structural changes in a production line design. One typical example of these changes is uniform assembly which does not allow high variability in the production schedules. Consequently, major hindrance to uniform assembly is a random fluctuation of task processing times in assembly line balancing. This article proposes a heuristic which takes into account stochastic task processing times and further develops a work assignment with the lowest expected total cost as well as an assignment with the highest work completion probability crucial for the success of JIT manufacturing.