Assembly line balancing in an automotive cables manufacturer using a genetic algorithm approach

In general, assembly lines, allow low production costs, reduced cycle times and accurate quality levels. Assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) is about how to group the assembly activities, which have to be performed in an assembly task, into workstations, so that the total assembly time required at each workstation is approximately the same (cycle time). In this paper, an ALBP is studied in a real-world automotive cables manufacturer company. This company found it necessary to balance its line, since it needs to increase the production rate. In this line type, the number of stations is known and the objective is to minimize cycle time where both precedence and zoning constrains must be satisfied. For this purpose, a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) based on genetic algorithm scheme and local search procedures is implemented and fully characterized. The results of comparative studies with CPLEX software exact solutions show that the proposed HGA approach is very effective and competitive.