OPTIMAL PRODUCTION SEQUENCING PROBLEM TO MINIMIZE LINE STOPPAGE TIME IN A MIXED MODEL ASSEMBL YLINE

摘要

Mixed-model assembly line is utilized to assemble many product variants on a single line in automobile and other industries. In JIT production system, the autonomation (Jidoka) allows workers to stop a conveyor line whenever they fail to complete their assembly operation within a predetermined process time. Given this situation, it becomes important to determine the production sequence to minimize the total conveyor stoppage time in the mixed-model assembly line. In this paper, we propose an explicit and complete formulation of the production sequencing problem for the mixed-model line, in which the objective function is to minimize the total line stoppage time. Some important properties are derived and by relaxing the integer constraints in the formulation, a branch and bound algorithm is developed. The performance of a commercial mathematical programming package is evaluated by solving several numerical examples using the formulation.