A new algorithm and multi-response Taguchi method to solve line balancing problem in an automotive industry

Abstract

One of the most important issues in an assembly line balancing problem is to control a flow of production and manufacturing to provide continuous flow to balance the production line. For this purpose, a line balancing problem was considered for a special assembly line in an automotive factory. A new algorithm was required to deal with balancing an assembly line which consisted of the same job which must be performed by more than one worker at the same time. In this way, the new algorithm was expected to be effective in such a case that jobs were simultaneously completed in a parallel way. In order to measure effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, performance criteria were identified as total number of assembly station, total number of workers, and line productivity. As a result of the application of the proposed algorithm with taking into consideration factors such as cycle time, an allowable number of workers in an assembly station, and an allowable idle time of a worker, alternative solutions were determined in order to measure these criteria. However, these alternative solutions do not give any information about which of the solutions provide not only minimization of the number of assembly station and number of workers on the line but also maximize the line productivity at the same time. Hereby, a multi-response Taguchi method was applied in order to investigate levels of factors which directly affected system performance criteria.