Integrated line balancing to attain Shojinka in a multiple straight line facility

Abstract

Traditional straight assembly lines are still one of the most important elements and an important fact of today's production systems. If applicable, a company can combine its multiple straight assembly lines and obtain many advantages of Shojinka more or less. This paper analyses a new problem – integrated balancing of multiple straight assembly lines (MSLB) to attain Shojinka in a multiple straight assembly line facility. The MSLB problem is built on the concept that it could be possible for a company to obtain the advantages of Shojinka even if the company has not adopted the U-shaped line layout. Three connectivity types are suggested to integrate multiple assembly lines. A binary integer formulation for integrated balancing of multiple assembly lines is developed. The objective of the proposed formulation is to minimise the total number of workstations required in the assembly facility. The formulation is explained and validated using some illustrative examples. The proposed approach provides flexibility to minimise the total idle times of the lines and total number of workstations that are required in the assembly line facility.

Keywords:

• assembly line balancing
• integer programming
• Shojinka