Rebalancing of mixed-model two-sided assembly lines with incompatible task groups: An industrial case study

Abstract

Assembly lines, which are mostly used flow-oriented production techniques in mass production, are classified in different ways, e.g. considering their configurations and/or product variety produced on the line. Mixed-model two-sided assembly lines are usually constructed for the production of large-sized items, such as automobiles or trucks, in an inter-mixed sequence. While the literature on two-sided lines is extensive, there is no research concerning minimizing the cycle time in mixed-model two-sided lines, to the best of the authors' knowledge. Therefore, this paper introduces the type-II mixed-model twosided assembly line balancing problem benefiting from the real data gathered through an industrial case study. This is the major contribution of this paper. This paper also contributes to knowledge by incorporating incompatible task groups, different from negative zoning constraints. Any two tasks existing in the same incompatible task group cannot be accomplished at the same time in the same mated-station.