AMBO UNIVERSITY

HACHALU HUNDESSA CAMPUS

DEPARTEMENT OF INDUSTRIAL
ENGINEERING

ARTICLES REVIEW ON ASSEMBLY LINE BALANCING.

By:- Mesfin Gijo Submitted To:- Dr Tariku Tamiru

Id:- PGE/68832/15 Ambo, Ethiopia

May, 2023

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Abstract
This review paper considers different approaches of heuristics, which can be helpful in reducing
a workstations number in assembly line balancing problem. An assembly line is one of the
intrinsic parts of manufacturing industry where the workstations are arranged systematically to
obtain their final product.
Assembly line is well known as an important part in manufacturing process. It consists of
several workstations that linked together to create a complete product. Each of workstation is
doing their own tasks. The assembly line balancing (ALB) problem is a decision making
problem of grouping tasks required to assemble a product among set of workstations with respect
to some constrains and objectives [1].
In other word, a series of workstations and the transport mechanism (conveyor belt) is referred as
the assembly line. An assembly line balancing (ALB) problem is well-known in industry. An
assembly line is specified by a finite set of tasks, processing time for each task and the
precedence relationship which defines permissible ordering of tasks. Balancing of an assembly
line aims at reducing losses and increasing productivity.
This paper reviews some of the studies carried out in the field of assembly line balancing and
puts forward recent trends and techniques available to optimize the assembly line of the
company.
Introduction
The manufacturing assembly line was first introduced by Henry Ford in the early 1900’s. It was
designed to be an efficient, highly productive way of manufacturing a particular product.
The basic assembly line consists of a set of workstations arranged in a linear fashion, with each
station connected by a material handling device. The basic movement of material through an
assembly line begins with apart being fed into the first station at a predetermined feed rate.
Line balancing is a useful tool in the production field. Its main aim is to assign jobs to each
worker or machine in such a way that each unit has the same amount of work to be done and can
complete their task at approximately the same time.
An assembly line balancing is a production strategy of assigning tasks to workstations, in which
parts are assembled and made into a final product as the unit progresses from station to station.
The first published paper of the assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) was made by Salveson
(1955) who suggested a linear programming solution.

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Since then, the topic of line balancing has been of great interest to researchers. However, since
the ALB problem falls into the NP hard class of combinatorial optimization problems (Gutjahr
and Nemhauser, 1964), it has consistently developed the efficient algorithms for obtaining
optimal solutions. Thus numerous research efforts have been directed towards the development
of computer-efficient approximation algorithms or heuristics (e.g. Kilbridge and Wester, 1961;
Helgeson and Birnie, 1961; Hoffman, 1963; Mansoor, 1964; Arcus, 1966; Baybar, 1986a) and
exact methods to solve the ALBproblems. (e.g. Jackson, 1956; Bowman, 1960; Van Assche and
Herroelen, 1978; Mamoud, 1989; Hackman et al., 1989; Sarin et al., 1999)
Assembly lines are one of the most popular production methods among flow-through
manufacturing systems. They are extensively used in the production of high-quality standard
products. Simultaneously, assembly lines have become increasingly important for producing
small quantities of custom products [1]. Increasing product variability and shorter life cycles
have shifted from traditional production methods to assembly lines. Assembly lines are expected
to produce products fast, efficiently, cost-effectively, and with the necessary quality [2].
The assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) consists of assigning tasks to an orderly sequence
of stations so that the precedence relationships between the tasks are satisfied and some
performance measures are optimized (e.g., minimize the balance delay or minimize the number
of workstations) [3].
Statement of the problem
In manufacturing industries Occurrence of bottleneck , Waiting time, loss, Lack of utilization of
worker and machine wisely, in efficient work is due to having less understanding of effectively
using assembly line problem.
At present, by using different approaches of line balancing problem we can solve and improves
productivity of assembly line as a whole, reduces cycle time and improves the efficiency of the
organization.

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Objective of the study

Main objective
The main objective of this paper is to review different articles on line balancing problem written
by different authors on different types of approaches to improve and balance the assembly line.
Specific objective
 I have reviewed articles based on the samples that have been done before.
 It composed of articles done by using different line balancing problem approaches.
 I have selected the articles done by heuristic line balancing approach.

Methodology
This article review was worked to analyze and enhance the assembling lines in the case of
different manufacturing industries done by using approaches of heuristic line balancing
problems. The review was conducted by referring and deep analysis of written articles on line
balancing problem and tried to identify the gap, the best approaches which can improve
productivity of different industries.
Then the analysis and interpretation of the work is performed and then analyzed. Based on the
results obtained, the way for improving productivity and minimization of delay are proposed.
Both qualitative and quantitative approach methods were used.
Literature Review:-
A work on Solving Assembly Production Line Balancing Problem Using Greedy Heuristic
Method of assembly line balancing done in Control and System Engineering Department,
University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq focuses on assembly line balancing (ALB) problem,
which the objective is to maximize the assembly line efficiency.
The problem is solved using a greedy heuristic method. MATLAB Software is used to perform
the proposed greedy heuristic method. According to them, typically problems facing are long
production lead-time, bottlenecking, short product cycle and low productivity. In this paper to
reduce or eliminate these problems they have proposed a simulation model which represent real
production process of that helps to identify the bottlenecks and enhance production system
performance. Then, the proposed method is applied to a previous real life case problem that is
found in literature for the cookers assembly line in the Light Industrial Company in Iraq.

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The outcomes of the research have shown that the greedy heuristic method is more efficient,
where the efficiency increased from 78.24% before applying assembly line balancing and
81.64% for the previous work based on SOT method to 85.53% when applying the greedy
heuristic method. The research has recommended that the decision maker in the company should
follow the most appropriate method to achieve high efficiency operations.

A paper on Line Balancing Analysis of Hollow Dakota 1730 Manufacturing Process in PT

XYZ was presented by Rachmad Hidayat1, Shofi fitrotis Salimah1*, Moh.Jufriyanto2, and
M.Firman Khaqiqi2. In this paper their main aim and objective was to present The issues existed
in the production process of hollow Dakota 1730 in PT. XYZ were 3 departments, from the
result of the first observation, there was a bottleneck from each department and each production
did not achieve the required target. Therefore, this research would fix the production line. The
method used was ranked /positional weight. Based on the data processing by the ranked
positional weight method, gained the total of work station in the production process of hollow
Dakota 1730 by the number of 2 work stations.
From the result of efficiency balancing, gained 62.5% and balance delay value was 37.5%. it
shows that the balance performance between each department increases significantly.
They developed the research will improve the production line by using oneof the line balancing
methods, namely Ranked Positional Weight. a company can have savings of significant amount
of running cost as impact of lean principles that effect in reduction of floor space and
transportation time.

A paper on Balancing The Shirt Production Line Under Different Operational Constraints
Using An Integer Programming Model was presented by Şeyda Topaloğlu Yıldız1* and
Gülseren Karabay2 at Dokuz Eylül University, Textile Engineering Department, İzmir, Türkiye
In their study, they consider a single-model assembly line balancing problem with workforce
and machine constraints in the sewing department of an apparel company.
Through this work they develop an integer programming (IP) model to optimally balance the
shirt production line, considering parallel machines in each stage of the line and various
operational constraints such as cycle time precedence constraints, task machine eligibility, and
the number of operators available. The IP model can either minimize the number of open

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workstations or both, minimize the number of open workstations and simultaneously assign tasks
in subassembly parts close to each other.
The model has been run under various scenarios using LINGO 15.0 optimization software.
Additionally, they balanced the shirt production line using the Ranked Positional Weight Method
(RPWM) for comparison purposes.
Chorkaew Jaturanonda, Suebsak Nanthavanij & Sanchoy K. Das presented a work on Heuristic
Procedure for the Assembly Line Balancing Problem With Postural Load Smoothness and
their paper presents a heuristic procedure for assigning assembly tasks to workstations where
both productivity and ergonomics issues are considered concurrently.
The procedure uses Kilbridge and Wester’s algorithm to obtain an initial task–workstation
assignment solution which minimizes the balance delay of an assembly line. A task reassignment
algorithm was applied to improve the initial solution by exchanging assembly tasks, which
smooth postural load among workers, between workstations. A composite index of variation was
used to measure the effectiveness of the task–workstation assignment solution.
On the basis of clothes assembling, they found that the task–workstation assignment solution
with a minimum composite index of variation can be obtained with relatively equal weights in
balance delay and postural load.
A case study on Assembly Line Balancing Problem with Reduced Number of Workstations
was conducted by Waldemar Grzechca considers heuristics which can be helpful in reducing a
workstations number in assembly line balancing problem. In the last sixty years a large variety of
heuristics and exact solution procedures have been proposed to balance different structures of
assembly lines. The author of this paper discussed some heuristics, which almost lead to the
reduction of the number of workstations (parallel single lines or u-line configuration) and
productivity improvement. Special attention was given to the quality of final results. These are
some measures of solution quality: line efficiency (LE), line time (LT) and smoothness index
(SI) are calculated and compared.
The writer has put heuristics, which are useful in the balancing of the serial line, U-shaped line,
and parallel assembly lines are presented. In many papers, it is possible to find different heuristic
approaches (Scholl 1998). Most of the heuristics are based on genetic algorithms, tabu search
and simulated annealing techniques.

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 Result and discussion
The research done by experts in the field of line balancing has been presented in Table 1 in the
ascending order of year. Although, there are ample works that are being carried out in this field,
the noted works of certain researchers within the period 2010 to 2019 have been reviewed.

No Author Name And Problem Type Solution Proposed

Year
1 S Khlil1*, H Al- Problem in cookers production Using greedy heuristic efficiency
Khazraji2 and Z line in the Light Industrial increased from 78.24% before
Alabacy 2020 Company in Iraq. applying assembly line balancing
and 81.64% for SOT method to
85.53%.
2 Rachmad Hidayat1, bottleneck of each department and fix the production line. The method
Shofi fitrotis production did not achieve the used was ranked /positional
Jufriyanto2, and required weight.
M.Firman Khaqiqi target.
2014
3 Şeyda Topaloğlu single-model assembly line integer programming (IP) model to
Yıldız1& Şeyda balancing problem with optimally balance the shirt
Topaloğlu Yıldız workforce and machine production line and
constraints in the sewing various scenarios using LINGO
department 15.0 optimization software
4 Chorkaew excessive minimize the balance
Jaturanonda, physical workload, awkward delay of an assembly line and
Suebsak Nanthavanij work postures maximize the
& Sanchoy K. Das smoothness of Postural Load
2015 among assembly line workers.
5 WaldemarGrzechca reduction of the number of different structures of assembly
workstations (parallel lines (serial line, with parallel
single lines or u-line workstations line, two-sided line, u-
configuration) line, etc.).Are explained. indetail.

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3. Research gaps
According to the thorough literature survey, it is concluded that no buffer, no breakdown, no
material shortage, fixed demand and many more are the assumptions that most of the papers
referred on. However, these cases do happen in a real-world situation. The difficulties in the
collection of data are the effect of the limitation in using the statistical tools, as the real world
does not permit data collection due to competition and confidentiality. There are lacks literature
related to queuing system for assembly line balancing compared with other methods. Many
researcher tendencies to choose other method than queuing concept even though this method can
improve the assembly line just same as other method and can be much better for certain cases.
Conclusion:-
From the study of the assembly line, it can be summarized that, through logical planning and
proper distribution of total job between the workstations a balanced assembly line can be
obtained. In order to, achieve certain factors like the number of workstations, cycle time, task
time, total cost imposed and productivity must be given special attention.
These methods are used to obtain an optimal solution and improve the assembly line. However,
there are still some gaps in research that can be thinking about and explore. By doing so will
provide some help to other researchers to develop a new idea and contribute to existing
knowledge.

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References:-
1. Daniel Kitaw, Amare Matebu and Solomon Tadesse(2010) “Assembly line balancing using
simulation technique in a garment manufacturing firm”. Journal of EEA, Vol. 27, pp. 69-80
2. Amen, M., 2001. Heuristic methods for cost-oriented assembly line balancing: A comparison
on solution quality and computing time. International Journal of Production Economics.
Vol.69: pp.255-264.
3. Arcus A.L., 1966. COMSOAL: A Computer Method of Sequencing Operations for Assembly
Lines. International Journal of Production Research. Vol. 4, No.4: pp.259-277.
4. Bard, J.F., Dar-El, E., Shtub, A., 1992. An analytic framework for sequencing mixed model
assembly lines. International Journal of Production Research. Vol. 30: pp.35-48.
5. Baroto T 2006 Simulasi perbandingan Algoritma Regionapproach, Positional Weight, Dan
6. Modie-Young dalam efisiensi dan keseimbangan lini produksi, Gamma, vol. II, no. I, 49–54.
[2] Battaïa A D O 2013 A taxonomy of line balancing problems and their solution approaches,
Int. J.Prod. Econ., 142, 259–277.