An integrated assembly sequence planning and plant assignment model for products assembled in a multi-plant system

In a global logistic environment, the assembly operations for producing a product can be distributed at different plants in a multi-plant collaborative manufacturing system. In this research, an integrated model is presented to simultaneously perform assembly sequence planning and plant assignment. In assembly sequence planning, the assembly operations are sequenced according to the assembly constraints and assembly cost objectives. In plant assignment, the assembly operations are assigned to the suitable plants to achieve the multi-plant cost objectives. First, the assembly precedence graphs and matrices are developed for checking feasible sequences. Next, a genetic algorithm (GA) method is presented to perform assembly sequence planning and plant assignment with an objective of minimizing the total of assembly costs and multi-plant costs. Finally, an example product are tested and discussed in this paper. The test results show that the presented method is feasible and efficient for solving the multi-plant assembly sequence planning problem.