Final assembly sequencing for just-in-time manufacturing

SUMMARY

Efficient sequencing of a mix of end-products in a final assembly shop is particularly well suited for a pull manufacturing environment, such as just-in-time (JIT). Since each product imposes different requirements on the feeder shops, in terms of parts' production, the feeder shops are driven by the sequence of final assembly. We developed a mathematical model and an algorithm for the final-assembly sequencing (FAS) problem. Our model links the FAS problem to smoothing the work-in-process levels of parts in the feeder shops. We designed an efficient local search procedure, based on selective pairwise interchanges, to solve a lexicographic minimax formulation of the FAS problem. Extensive testing revealed that the algorithm consistently provided excellent results in a tractable running time.