Line Balancing - What is it ?

Here is a simple definition and example of line balancing : Everyone is doing the same amount of work Doing the same amount of work to customer requirement Variation is smoothed No one overburdened No one waiting Everyone working together in a BALANCED fashion

Here we see operator number 1 over-producing, thus creating the other 6 wastes

We simply re-balance the work content (Re distribute some of the work)

The need for line balancing When manufacturing activities are laid out as a line in a product layout it is important to ensure, as far as is possible, that the capacity of each facility on the line is approximately the same, to do otherwise would be inefficient and wasteful. Facilities should be planned therefore to provide a similar capacity. This may involve buying larger or smaller machines to suit. When designing assembly lines involving many manual assembly tasks it is possible to organize where and when tasks are done to maximize efficiency. For example the assembly of a product may require say 20 tasks, of differing standard times. This does not mean that 20 operators are required, each doing a single task. Doing each separately and in sequence would be very inefficient. There may be some flexibility in the sequence in which the tasks are done, but much of the sequence will be fixed. Concepts of line balancing

It is usually possible to group tasks together at a work station in a way which is possible for the given sequence constraints but which brings the total standard time at each work station to around the same value, and a value which is feasible for the intended output volume. 5 operators at 5 workstations on the assembly line may, for example, do a set of 20 tasks. In this way each work station, and hence each operator, will be equally loaded and thus have the same capacity. Work will therefore be able to flow smoothly along the line without 'bottlenecks' of less capacity. Such a line would be 'balanced' and would operate efficiently. In practice perfect balance is unlikely, the best solution is that in which the range of workstation standard times is a minimum. The efficiency and utilization of a line can be measured as: Cycle time used here is 'time required'. Table 1 illustrates an example of line balancing Table 1 Tasks required for assembly of a product (task times in minutes) Task Time 1 1.2 2 0.7 3 0.9 4 0.9 5 1.5 6 1.8 7 0.4 8 0.4 9 1.5 Total 9.3 Output/day Hours/day 240 8

Table 1 shows data about a set of tasks needed to assemble a product. For each task a standard time is given. The dependence or precedence for each activity is an indication of which other activities need to be done before the given activity can be done. Figure 1 shows the logical dependencies as a network diagram. From the volume data it is possible to calculate the time available. The output per day is 240 so the time available to assemble each one is 1/240 of a day. The working day is 8 hours or 480 minutes so the time available is 2 minutes. This means that tasks can be combined together but the total time at a workstation must not exceed 2 minutes. The actual cycle time may be less than this. The actual cycle time for a line is the maximum of the values of required at its workstations. From the total work content, 9.3 minutes, it is possible to calculate the minimum number of work stations. The value obtained is rounded up to the next higher whole number. Minimum no. of work stations = total work content / cycle time (rounded up to an integer)

In this case the minimum number of work stations is 9.3 / 2 = 4.65 which is rounded up to 5. This does not means that the number of work stations has to be 5 only that 5 is the minimum number that are needed to ensure that the time required is below that needed to achieve the required output. In some cases it may not be possible to achieve this minimum, in other cases a larger number could be preferred. In many cases there will not be a single feasible solution but several alternatives. Figure 1 Dependencies

From the activity list and dependencies it is possible to draw a network showing the sequences of activities. This is shown in Figure 1. By visual inspection of Figure 1 it can be seen that some activities can be grouped together, up to the limit of the cycle time. Tasks 1 and 3 can be linked since when task 1 has been done it is possible to do task 3. Tasks 2 and 4 can be linked since once task 1 has been done both tasks 2 and 4 can be done. Tasks 1 and 5 can not be grouped since task 2 is not done until after task 1 has been done. If it were possible within the time available tasks 1 and 2 and 5 could be grouped together (but not in this case since the time available would be exceeded). Figure 2 shows a possible grouping of activities for this example and Table 2 shows standard times for the 5 work stations. Table 2 Workstations for assembly of a product

Station Tasks Time

1 1+3 1.9

2 2+4 1.9

3 6 1.8

4 5+7 1.9

5 8+9 1.9

This table, and Figure 2 show that tasks 1 and 3, 5 and 7 and 8 and 9 have been grouped together. Figure 2

Figure 3 shows the work load at each workstation. The balance is not perfect since the task time at each workstation is not exactly the same. However the line is better balanced than it would have been if each task had been done at its own workstation. Figure 3

Measures of the efficiency of the line can then be made and compared for alternative proposals

Please attempt this in your groups

A product is to be assembled on a line. The activities required and their standard times, in standard minutes, are shown in the table below. The diagram shows the dependencies between the assembly activities. The output required is 100 units per 8hour day. Table 3 Task for an assembly line Task Time Precedence 1 1.2 2 2.1 3 2.3 4 2.5 1 + 2 5 4.0 2 6 3.2 2 + 3 7 1.2 4+ 5 8 1.1 5 9 1.6 5+ 6 10 3.6 7+8+9