Title: The sliding frame – extending the concept to various assembly line balancing problems

Authors: Yuval Cohen, Ezey Dar-El

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Program, The Open University of Israel, P.O. Box 808, Rabutzki 108, Raanana 43107, Israel. ' Industrial Engineering Department, Technion (IIT), Haifa 32000, Israel

Abstract: This paper presents an extension and analysis of a new approach: the sliding frame (SF), based on a fledgling technique. SF could be efficiently applied for solving most line-balancing problems. The main advantage of this approach is its ability to dissect the original problem to small controllable-size sub-problems for which exact techniques can be applied. A key to the sliding is an underlying sequence of activities on which the frame slides. The paper discusses the options for activity sequencing, and some effects of frame size and step size. After illustrating the efficiency of the sliding frame on some classic examples, a more complex model – the assembly line design problem (ALDP) is introduced and solved using a sliding frame. The ALDP minimises both the costs of expansive equipment selection, and the labour cost (reflected by the number of stations).

Keywords: sliding frame; sliding window; assembly line balancing; assembly lines; production lines; design for assembly; DFA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2010.032889

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.20 No.1/2/3/4, pp.4 - 24

Published online: 05 May 2010 *

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