A single-run optimization algorithm for stochastic assembly line balancing problems : JrJung Lyu, v16, n3, 1997, pp204–210

• Publisher: Society of Manufacturing Engineers
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 113 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0278-6125
• DOI: 10.1016/s0278-6125(97)81719-0

✦ Synopsis

to change floors during the execution of the algorithm. However, if the run times are required to be reasonable and comparable, it is no longer clear that the single-stage approach will lead to superior solutions because it has to explore a larger solution space. The performance of the twostage approach, on the other hand, depends on the quality of the floor assignments obtained in stage one. Instrumental to the quality of these assignments is a newly developed simplified formulation with a linear objective to optimize the inter-floor handling cost in stage one. The resulting two-stage approach is then evaluated with respect to a single-stage approach using various test problems. The evaluation includes a variation of the above two-stage approach where the floor assignments obtained in stage one are not permanent; that is, departments are allowed to change floors in the second stage. The evaluation indicates that the proposed twostage approach compares quite well to both of the other approaches. The results obtained by the two-stage approach are shown from a data set that is based on a real-world manufacturing facility.