AN INTEGER MODEL AND A HEURISTIC ALGORITHM FOR THE FLEXIBLE LINE BALANCING PROBLEM

In this paper, a new approach to respond rapidly changing market demands has been created for the line balancing problem(LBP) having an important role in textile and apparel industry. The material of the study is the operation details that will be balanced the line in the sewing department. Some of the operations can flexibly be assigned to the operators; these are named as flexible operations. The others, nonflexibles, must be performed to the order. The integer mathematical programming is the method of the study. With the operation details of the product to be balanced the line, an integer model finding minimum idle time per operator in a production range have been developed using integer mathematical programming. Besides, because of the NP-hardness of the LBP, a new heuristic algorithm which responds immediately to market demands, has polynomial complexity, and finds the minimum number of operators has been designed. Using the algorithm designed, software has been programmed in C# to be used in the industry and the high-efficiency balancing results obtained by means of the software have been presented for a sample industrial model.

Keywords:

Textile and apparel technology, Flexible line balancing problem, Lean production, Heuristic algorithm Pocket program,

PDF

___

1. Bautista, J., Pereira J., 2007, “Ant algorithms for a time and space constrained assembly line balancing problem”, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol: 17(3), pp: 2016-2032.
2. Becker, C., Scholl, A., 2006, “A survey on problems and methods in generalized assembly line balancing”, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol: 168(3), pp: 694-715.
3. Bryton, B., 1954, “Balancing of a continuous production line”, M.Sc. thesis, North-Western University.
4. Bukchin, Y., Rabinowitch, I., 2006, “A branch-and-bound based solution approach for the mixed-model assembly line-balancing problem for minimizing stations and task duplication costs” European Journal of Operational Research, Vol: 174(1), pp: 492-508.
5. Garey, M.R., Johnson, D.S, 1979, Computers and Intractability, W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco.
6. Gökçen, H., Ağpak, K., Benzer, R., 2006, “Balancing of parallel assembly lines”, International Journal of Production Economics, Vol: 103(2), pp: 600-609.
7. Güner M., 2001, “Konfeksiyon İşletmelerinde Dikim Hattının Dengelenmesi”, Konfeksiyon ve Teknik, Temmuz, pp: 67-72.
8. Güner, M., Ünal, C., 2007, “Takt time in production”, Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon, Vol: 17(1), pp: 4-7.
9. Holweg, M., 2007, “The genealogy of lean production”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol: 25(2), pp: 420–437.
10. Kanat, S., Güner, M., 2006, “Just in time production system and its feasibility to textile and apparel sector”, Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon, Vol: 16(4), pp: 274-278.
11. Kara, Y., Ozcan, U., Peker, A., 2007, “Balancing and sequencing mixed-model just-in-time U-lines with multiple objectives”, Applied Mathematics and Computation, Vol: 184(2), pp: 566-588.
12. Keytack, H., 1997, “Expert Line Balancing System (ELBS)”, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol: 33(3/4), pp: 303-306.
13. Martello, S., Toth, P., 1990, Knapsack Problems: Algorithms and Computer implementations, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York.
14. Nuriyev, U., Güner, M., Gürsoy, A., 2009, “A model for determination of optimal production quantity for minimum idle time: a case study in a garment industry”, Tekstil,. Vol: 58(5), pp: 214-220.
15. Salveson, M.E., 1955, “The assembly line balancing problem”, The Journal of Industrial Engineering, Vol: 6(3), pp: 18–25. 16. Yücel, Ö., Güner, M., 2008, “Analyzing the factors affecting garment sewing times”, Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon, Vol: 18(1), pp: 41-48.

ISSN: 1300-3356
Yayın Aralığı: Yılda 4 Sayı
Yayıncı: Ege Üniversitesi Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon Araştırma & Uygulama Merkezi

Arşiv