Assembly line worker assignment and rebalancing problem: A mathematical model and an artificial bee colony algorithm

Karaş A., Özçelik F.

Computers and Industrial Engineering, cilt.156, 2021 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 156
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.cie.2021.107195
  • Dergi Adı: Computers and Industrial Engineering
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, ABI/INFORM, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, Communication Abstracts, Computer & Applied Sciences, INSPEC, Metadex, DIALNET, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Assembly lines, Rebalancing, Worker assignment, Variable task times, Metaheuristics, RE-BALANCING PROBLEM, MULTIOBJECTIVE GENETIC ALGORITHM, HEURISTIC ALGORITHM, SEARCH ALGORITHM, BOUND ALGORITHM, JOB ROTATION, INTEGRATION, CENTERS
  • Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

© 2021In real life, some situations such as demand fluctuations, changes in product structure, and workstation failures affect the existing balance of assembly lines, resulting in the need for these lines to rebalance. In the assembly line rebalancing problem (ALRBP), it is assumed that the processing time of a task does not depend on the worker performing it. Nevertheless, in practice, the time each worker requires to execute a task varies owing to several reasons, including the experience, skill, and disability of some individuals. In this study, the assembly line worker assignment and rebalancing problem (ALWARBP), which considers task times diversify in terms of workers, is introduced to fill this gap. The ALWARBP consists of the reassignment of tasks and workers to non-disrupted workstations after disruptions occur due to breakdowns or shutdowns of workstations to minimize variability in terms of cycle time and workstation assignments of tasks relative to the initial line balance. The aims of this paper are to i) describe the ALWARBP, ii) develop a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model, and iii) propose an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm to tackle the considered problem. The numerical experiments have been designed and conducted using 120 problem instances. The experimental results indicate that both methods managed to obtain optimal solutions in small-sized instances. In large-sized test instances, the proposed ABC algorithm showed higher performance in terms of solution value and computation time.