Annealing method for PCB assembly scheduling on two sequential machines

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Abstract
Modern electronic printed circuit board assembly (PCB) typically employs specialized component insertion machines, in a flow-shop-type facility. Since the mix of boards on production utilizes more component types than the machines contain, there is a sequence-dependent set up time between the board types. The setup time is very significant relative to the fast insertion operation. This paper demonstrates the simulated annealing approach as a tool for sequencing the boards on two sequential insertion machines, in order to minimize the average flow time of the boards. This approach is experimented on a real industrial problem and its results and computation times are presented.