Solving the mixed-model assembly line balancing problem type-I using a Hybrid Reactive GRASP

Abstract

One of the most recent challenges that manufacturers confront is to respond on time to the variety of customers’ demands for different products. The Assembly line is the main element responsible for assembling products in manufacturing systems, and it requires good management to avoid several problems that could lead to production failures. The mixed-model assembly line balancing problem type-I (MiMALBP-I) occurs in the step of designing a new assembly line in which different models of one product are assembled in an intermixed sequence; it aims to optimize the number of workstations for a fixed known cycle time. In this paper, the authors propose a Hybrid Reactive Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (HRGRASP) to solve this problem. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with those of the basic GRASP, heuristics based approach, and the Lingo solver using seven problems of different sizes.

Keywords

• Assembly line balancing problem type-II
• mixed-model assembly lines
• reactive GRASP
• learning mechanism