An interactive approach to bicriterion loading of a flexible assembly system

This paper presents integer programming formulations and an interactive solution procedure for a bicriterion loading problem in a flexible assembly system. The system is made up of a set of assembly stations linked with an automated material handling system. In the system, several different product types can be assembled simultaneously. The problem objective is to assign assembly tasks and products to stations with limited working space, so as to balance the station workloads and to minimize station-to-station product transfer time, subject to precedence relations among the tasks for a mix of product types. The solution procedure proposed is based on the weighting method and the interactive search for a set of weights which would produce the most preferred nondominated solution. Numerical examples are included to illustrate possible applications of the interactive approach for various problem formulations proposed.