An Interactive Program

Abstract

We describe the development of a program to balance 1- or 2-sided

assembly lines for a manufacturer of utility vehicles. The program is

highly interactive, runs on a personal computer, and is in use now. We

also discuss some theoretical properties of 2-sided lines. Finally, we include

the data for a real assembly line.

Key words: assembly lines, line balancing, heuristics, software

Supported in part by the National Science Foundation (DDM-9101581), and by the Office

of Naval Research (N00014-89-J-1571). Address: School of Industrial and Systems Engineering,

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332

1

1 Introduction

A manufacturer of small utility vehicles rebalances its several very flexible assembly

lines as often as once each week to better match production rate to

market demand that is both seasonal and “lumpy”. Each line produces a single

model of vehicle. The assembly at each station is done by a worker who is either

a permanent employee of the manufacturer or else a temporary employee hired

from a pool of contract labor. The company wants to minimize the number of

stations