Solving Large Single-Model Assembly Line Balancing Problems—A Comparative Study

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Abstract
A comparative study is made between three methods for balancing single-model assembly lines. These include: 10-SP, which selects the best of ten single-pass solutions; ARCUS—a random multi-pass method, and MALB, an iterative backtracking method. The assembly tasks contain up to 140 work elements with widely differing precedence structures. Measurements of the Balance Delay are used for comparing the solution efficiencies and computation times are also compared. The experiments show significant differences between the three line balancing methods and that these differences are accentuated for certain conditions of task size, precedence structure and the imposed balancing requirements. It is shown that 10-SP is yet another simple but effective technique for balancing single-model assembly lines.