The Time and Space Assembly Line Balancing Problem: modelling two new space features

Abstract

The Time and Space Assembly Line Balancing Problem (TSALBP) is a natural evolution of the well known Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem that also takes into consideration the space required by the machinery and assembly parts of the product. The present work proposes a more realistic space allocation approach. Firstly, it allows consecutive workstations to share a reasonable amount of space without an additional time cost. And secondly, assigning tasks that need the same machinery together so that not every workstation needs be fully equipped. In addition, a mathematical programming model and an intuitive heuristic for the problem taking into account these innovative features are developed and tested on an adapted widely used set of data for the typical TSALBP.