Research Information System
International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, vol.15, no.3, pp.304-314, 2013 (Scopus)
This study addresses mixed model assembly line balancing problems arising in automotive plants. The main motivation for balancing a mixed model assembly line is to avoid inefficiencies among the stations. There exist many sources for these inefficiencies such as idle workers, extra stations, unbalanced workloads and unnecessary equipments along the line. All these factors can be involved in a multi-objective approach. However, the decision maker cannot determine precise target values for abovementioned objectives. Thus, fuzzy goal constraints are much more suitable for the problem solution. The problem stated above is formulated in this study as a mixed integer fuzzy-goal programming with the objectives of minimising number of workers and stations, minimising total unbalanced workloads and minimising total equipment costs. The problem is then linearised using Min-Max goal programming approach to solve mixed model assembly line balancing with above given objectives. This study includes a case study and determines the priority of each objective based on the judgments of the assembly line manager. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.