Title: Single-batch lot streaming in a two-stage assembly system

Authors: Subhash C. Sarin; Liming Yao; Dan Trietsch

Addresses: Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA. ' Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA. ' College of Engineering, American University of Armenia, Yerevan, 0019, Armenia

Abstract: We address a single-batch lot streaming problem for a two-stage assembly system. The first stage consists of m parallel subassembly machines, each devoted to a component type. A single assembly machine at the second stage assembles a unit of a product after all m components (one each from the subassembly machines) are ready. The batch consists of U units. Detached or attached setups are necessary before the start of the first item on each machine. Given a fixed maximal number of sublots, the problem is to determine integer sublot sizes to minimise the makespan. We present a polynomial-time algorithm to obtain an optimal solution.

Keywords: scheduling; lot streaming; two-stage assembly systems; makespan; setups; line of balance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPS.2011.044604

International Journal of Planning and Scheduling, 2011 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.90 - 108

Published online: 31 Dec 2011 *

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