A dynamic programming based heuristic for the assembly line balancing problem

Joaquín Bautista, Jordi Pereira

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

92 Scopus citations

Abstract

The simple assembly line balancing problem is the simplification of a real problem associated to the assignment of the elementary tasks required for assembly of a product in an assembly line. This problem has been extensively studied in the literature for more than half a century. The present work proposes a new procedure to solve the problem we call Bounded Dynamic Programming. This use of the term Bounded is associated not only with the use of bounds to reduce the state space but also to the reduction of such space based on heuristics. This procedure is capable of obtaining an optimal solution rate of 267 out of 269 instances, which have been used in previous works, thus obtaining the best-known performance for the problem. These results are an improvement from any previous procedure found in the literature even when using smaller computing times.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)787-794
Number of pages8
JournalEuropean Journal of Operational Research
Volume194
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Assembly line balancing
  • Bounded Dynamic Programming
  • Car manufacturing
  • Production

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