Existence and sizing of buffers in parallel assembly lines with multi-line workstations and different cycle times

Abstract

Parallel Assembly Lines with multi-line stations (PALBs) have been widely studied in recent years because PALBs can help improve the efficiency of a production system. However, the need of buffers has not been considered in the PALBP literature. In this study, for the first time in the literature, it is shown and demonstrated the need to consider the use of buffers in this type of line when their cycle times are different. Moreover, the buffer sizing problem in a multi-line workstation is presented and formalized. It is shown that the sequencing and scheduling of the task influences the buffer size. Finally, the designed resolution method is shown: solve a mixed integer linear programming model with a commercial software, with the objective of minimizing the size of the buffers.