The assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem with stochastic worker availability. Issue 3 (1st February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ritt, Marcus; Costa, Alysson M.; Miralles, Cristóbal
• Is Part Of: International journal of production research. Volume 54:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 907
• Page End: 922
• Publication Date: 2016-02-01
• Subjects: assembly line balancing -- mixed integer linear programming -- stochastic programming -- heterogeneous workforce -- simulated annealing; Factory management -- Periodicals; 658.57
• DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2015.1108534
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7543

Abstract

Abstract : Assembly lines can be employed successfully in sheltered work centres to better include persons with disabilities in the labour market as well as to improve production efficiency. The optimal assignment of a heterogeneous workforce is known as the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem (ALWABP). These assembly lines are characterised not only by a heterogeneous workforce, but also by high levels of absenteeism, which makes it more difficult to obtain stable and efficient line balancing solutions. In this paper, an extension of the ALWABP to minimise the expected cycle time under uncertain worker availability is proposed. We model this problem as a two-stage mixed integer program, and propose local search heuristics for solving it. Computational experiments show that stochastic modelling can help to improve the line's efficiency and that the proposed heuristics produce good results for instances of practical size.