Title: A bi-objective combination optimisation model for line-seru conversion based on queuing theory

Authors: Luming Shao; Zhe Zhang; Yong Yin

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China ' School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China ' Graduate School of Business, Doshisha University, Karasuma-Imadegawa, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan

Abstract: Although seru production system is one of responsive and flexible systems to cope with the uncertain demands or changes in the volatile market, seru design and worker assignment are still complex problems with the changeable environment and stochastic requirements. In this paper, based on queueing theory, seru production system is addressed to form suitable serus for maximising the utilisation of workers. In addition, faced to the stochastic orders, arranging different orders to corresponding serus is another optimal problem. In this case, a bi-objective combination optimisation model is proposed to confirm serus formation and arrange product orders among different serus. In order to solve this stochastic nonlinear model, an effective heuristic algorithm is designed. Finally, a numerical example is presented to validate the effectiveness of proposed model and algorithm. [Received 16 June 2016; Accepted 1 December 2016]

Keywords: line-seru conversion; queuing theory; bi-objective optimisation; heuristics; seru production systems; stochastic modelling; nonlinear modelling; serus; seru design; worker assignment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2016.082821

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2016 Vol.11 No.4, pp.322 - 338

Received: 16 Jun 2016
Accepted: 30 Nov 2016

Published online: 12 Mar 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article