Multi-manned assembly line balancing with sequence-dependent set-up times using an enhanced migrating birds optimization algorithm

Abstract

In multi-manned assembly lines, more than one operator is allowed on the same workstation. Limited research has been carried out on sequence-dependent set-up times. Therefore, this article optimizes the multi-manned assembly line balancing problem with sequence-dependent set-up times using an enhanced migrating birds optimization (EMBO) algorithm. Sequence-dependent set-up times are embedded in two ways: forward and backward set-ups. EMBO designs a mixed neighbourhood search and acceptance criteria to help it escape from local optima, and a diversification mechanism to enhance the global exploration ability. Three types of experiment and two scenarios, with low and high set-up times, are conducted to test the performance of the mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model and EMBO. The first experiment compares three MILP models (no, low and high set-up times) to illustrate the significance of set-up times. The final two experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of EMBO by comparison with the MILP model and six state-of-the-art methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Multi-manned assembly lines
• sequence-dependent
• set-up times
• MILP
• migrating birds optimization

Data availability statement

The authors can provide the results upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number 2021M702536] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51875421,62173260].