Title: Assembly line balancing, proposal of a new methodology: integrated balancing method

Authors: Cristina Cerbaso; Alessandro Silvestri; Gianpaolo Di Bona; Antonio Forcina; Domenico Falcone

Addresses: Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via Di Biasio, 43, Cassino, Italy ' Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via Di Biasio, 43, Cassino, Italy ' Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via Di Biasio, 43, Cassino, Italy ' Department of Engineering, University of Naples 'Parthenope', Centro Direzionale, Isola C4, Naples, Italy ' Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via Di Biasio, 43, Cassino FR, Italy

Abstract: In industrial plants, line balancing problems do not often find an objective solution and production managers often allocate tasks to operators without following a real methodology, but basing on personal experience; therefore, there are many problems when quick changes of capacity or constraints occur. The starting point of this study is the investigation of the main balancing methodologies, understanding their advantages and disadvantages in assigning homogenously tasks to workers. We propose new assembly lines balancing technique simple, general and effective, able to solve some ambiguity in balancing. Thanks to the proposed research, integration and a progress of classic methodologies have been realised. The method proposed, called IBM - integrated balancing method, has been applied to a real case study (the assembly line of a multinational company), in order to show its capacity of supporting production managers in designing and optimising assembly lines (ALBPs).

Keywords: balancing methodologies; balancing techniques; precedence constraints; assembly line balancing problems; ALBPs; production optimisation; capacity constraints; worker tasks; balancing ambiguity; machine utilisation; operator saturation; workstation minimisation; fixed cycle time.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2017.084448

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2017 Vol.27 No.3, pp.408 - 437

Received: 01 Sep 2015
Accepted: 26 Dec 2015
Published online: 07 Jun 2017 *

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