Simultaneous loading, routing, and assembly plan selection in a flexible assembly system

The paper presents integer programming formulations and a heuristic solution approach for a bicriterion machine loading, assembly routing, and assembly plan selection in a flexible assembly system. The problem objective is to simultaneously determine an allocation of assembly tasks among the stations and to select assembly plans and assembly routes for a mix of products so as to balance station workloads and minimize total transportation time. In the approach proposed, first, the station workloads are balanced using a linear relaxation-based heuristic and then assembly plans and routes are selected for all products, based on a network flow model. An illustrative example is provided and some computational results are reported.