A branch-and-bound algorithm to minimize the line length of a two-sided assembly line

A new branch-and-bound algorithm is presented to solve the two-sided assembly line balancing problem of type 1 (TALB-1). First, a pair of two directly facing station is defined as a position, and then the two-sided assembly line (TAL) is relaxed to a one-sided assembly line (OAL). Some new lower bound on positions are computed, and dominance rules and reduction rules for the one-sided assembly line balancing problem of type 1 (OALB-1) are extended and incorporated into a station-oriented assignment procedure for the TALB-1 problem. Finally, the tests are carried out on a well-known benchmark set of problem instances, and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed procedure is efficient.