Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Two-sided assembly line balancing with operator number and task constraints: a hybrid imperialist competitive algorithm

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Two-sided assembly line balancing problems usually occur in plants producing large-sized high-volume products such as buses, trucks, or cars. Comparing to traditional simple assembly lines, the two-sided assembly line can shorten the length of line, enhance the utilization of tools and fixtures, and improve the production rate of operators, etc. Whereas in a two-sided assembly line, due to a couple of constraints such as the operation direction constraint and the sequence-dependent finish time constraint, the balancing procedure is much more complex than for a simple assembly line. In this paper, besides some fundamental constraints of the two-sided assembly lines, we put forward additionally the restriction of operator number at each workstation, and take into account concurrently more constraints such as the positional constraints, zoning constraints, and the synchronous task constraints. A novel hybrid imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) combined with the late acceptance hill-climbing (LAHC) algorithm is employed to solve the multiconstraint problem. For the evaluation of the proposed algorithm, the performance of the hybrid ICA is examined over benchmarks from the literature and compared with the LAHC algorithm and the lower bounds of the instances. Furthermore, a practical two-sided assembly line balancing problem from an engineering machinery company is solved with the proposed approach. The results confirm that the hybrid ICA can effectively shorten the line length and reduce the amount of operators for the existing two-sided assembly line.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Shtub A, Dar-El EM (1989) A methodology for the selection of assembly systems. Int J Prod Res 27(1):175–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Becker C, Scholl A (2006) A survey on problems and methods in generalized assembly line balancing. Eur J Oper Res 168(3):694–715

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Bartholdi JJ (1993) Balancing two-sided assembly lines: a case study. Int J Prod Res 31(10):2447–2461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kim YK, Kim Y, Kim YJ (2000) Two-sided assembly line balancing: a genetic algorithm approach. Prod Plan Control 11(1):44–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Lee TO, Kim Y, Kim YK (2001) Two-sided assembly line balancing to maximize work relatedness and slackness. Comput Ind Eng 40(3):273–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lapierre SD, Ruiz AB (2004) Balancing assembly lines: an industrial case study. J Oper Res Soc 55:589–597

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Baykasoglu A, Dereli T (2008) Two-sided assembly line balancing using an ant-colony-based heuristic. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 36(5–6):582–588

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kim YK, Song WS, Kim JH (2009) A mathematical model and a genetic algorithm for two-sided assembly line balancing. Comput Oper Res 36(3):853–865

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Wu EF, Jin J, Bao JS, Hu XF (2008) A branch-and-bound algorithm for two-sided assembly line balancing. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 39(9–10):1009–1015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hu XF, Wu EF, Bao JS, Jin Y (2010) A branch-and-bound algorithm to minimize the line length of a two-sided assembly line. Eur J Oper Res 206(3):703–707

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Hu X, Wu E, Jin Y (2008) A station-oriented enumerative algorithm for two-sided assembly line balancing. Eur J Oper Res 186(1):435–440

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Özcan U, Toklu B (2009) A tabu search algorithm for two-sided assembly line balancing. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 43(7–8):822–829

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Özcan U, Toklu B (2009) Multiple-criteria decision-making in two-sided assembly line balancing: a goal programming and a fuzzy goal programming models. Comput Oper Res 36(6):1955–1965

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Özcan U, Toklu B (2009) Balancing of mixed-model two-sided assembly lines. Comput Ind Eng 57(1):217–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Simaria AS, Vilarinho PM (2009) 2-ANTBAL: an ant colony optimisation algorithm for balancing two-sided assembly lines. Comput Ind Eng 56(2):489–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Özbakir L, Tapkan P (2010) Balancing fuzzy multi-objective two-sided assembly lines via Bees Algorithm. J Intell Fuzzy Syst 21(5):317–329

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Yegul MF, Agpak K, Yavuz M (2010) A new algorithm for U-shaped two-sided assembly line balancing. T Can Soc Mech Eng 34(2):225–241

    Google Scholar 

  18. Özcan U, Toklu B (2010) Balancing two-sided assembly lines with sequence-dependent setup times. Int J Prod Res 48(18):5363–5383

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Özcan U (2010) Balancing stochastic two-sided assembly lines: a chance-constrained, piecewise-linear, mixed integer program and a simulated annealing algorithm. Eur J Oper Res 205(1):81–97

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Roshani A, Fattahi P, Roshani A, Salehi M, Roshani A (2012) Cost-oriented two-sided assembly line balancing problem: a simulated annealing approach. Int J comput Integr Manuf 25(8):689–715

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Rabbani M, Moghaddam M, Manavizadeh N (2012) Balancing of mixed-model two-sided assembly lines with multiple U-shaped layout. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 59(9–12):1191–1210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Chutima P, Chimklai P (2012) Multi-objective two-sided mixed-model assembly line balancing using particle swarm optimisation with negative knowledge. Comput Ind Eng 62(1):39–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Tapkan P, Ozbakir L, Baykasoglu A (2012) Bees Algorithm for constrained fuzzy multi-objective two-sided assembly line balancing problem. Optim Lett 6(6SI):1039–1049

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Purnomo HD, Wee HM, Rau H (2013) Two-sided assembly lines balancing with assignment restrictions. Math Comput Model 57(1–2):189–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Atashpaz-Gargari E, Lucas C (2007) Imperialist competitive algorithm: an algorithm for optimization inspired by imperialistic competition. Proceedings of the 2007 I.E. Congress on Evolutionary Computation, Singapore, Sept 25–28, 4661–4667

  26. Burke EK, Bykov Y (2008) A late acceptance strategy in hill-climbing for exam timetabling problems. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Montreal, Canada, Aug 18–22

  27. Bagher M, Zandieh M, Farsijani H (2011) Balancing of stochastic U-type assembly lines: an imperialist competitive algorithm. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 54(1–4):271–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Shokrollahpour E, Zandieh M, Dorri B (2011) A novel imperialist competitive algorithm for bi-criteria scheduling of the assembly flowshop problem. Int J Prod Res 49(11):3087–3103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Moradi H, Zandieh M (2013) An imperialist competitive algorithm for a mixed-model assembly line sequencing problem. J Manuf Syst 32(1):46–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Banisadr AH, Zandieh M, Mahdavi I (2013) A hybrid imperialist competitive algorithm for single-machine scheduling problem with linear earliness and quadratic tardiness penalties. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 65(5–8):981–989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Kayvanfar V, Zandieh M (2012) The economic lot scheduling problem with deteriorating items and shortage: an imperialist competitive algorithm. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 62(5–8):759–773

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Tseng HE (2006) Guided genetic algorithms for solving a larger constraint assembly problem. Int J Prod Res 44(3):601–625

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, HUST-SANY Joint Lab of Advanced Manufacturing, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Baoxi Wang, Zailin Guan, Dashuang Li, Chaoyong Zhang & Lei Chen

Authors
  1. Baoxi Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zailin Guan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dashuang Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Chaoyong Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Lei Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chaoyong Zhang.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Table 7 Practical problem P150
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, B., Guan, Z., Li, D. et al. Two-sided assembly line balancing with operator number and task constraints: a hybrid imperialist competitive algorithm. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 74, 791–805 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-014-5816-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-014-5816-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation