Task assignment in pipeline assembly systems

The authors deal with the problem of part flow management in a class of assembly systems characterized by a serial transportation system connecting the workstations. The system assembles a number of identical units, each requiring a set of operations. Each operation is performed by a workstation and each workstation can perform any operation. The problem consists of assigning the operations to the workstations to maximize some productivity index of the system. Usually, a tree-like precedence relationship exists among the operations (assembly tree). The problem is analyzed for the case in which a dominating path on the assembly tree exists. A polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm is presented for the optimal assignment of operations to workstations