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Balancing assembly line with skilled and unskilled workers

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  • Corominas, Albert
  • Pastor, Rafael
  • Plans, Joan

Abstract

In this paper, we present the process of rebalancing the line at motorcycle-assembly plant. The company found it necessary to rebalance its line, since it needs to increase production in the spring and summer months. The main characteristics of the problem are as follows: (i) the company hires temporary staff, who need more time to carry out their tasks than permanent workers; (ii) there must always be at least one skilled employee working alongside an unskilled one; and (iii) different task groups are incompatible with each other (clean-hands tasks and dirty-hands tasks). The goal is to minimise the number of temporary workers required, given a cycle time and the team of workers on staff. The problem is modelled as a binary linear program (BLP) and solved optimally by means of the ILOG CPLEX 9.0 optimiser. The solution provided, namely 12 permanent workers (skilled) and two temporary workers (unskilled), is an improvement on the solution implemented by the business, which involved 12 permanent workers and four temporary workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Corominas, Albert & Pastor, Rafael & Plans, Joan, 2008. "Balancing assembly line with skilled and unskilled workers," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1126-1132, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:36:y:2008:i:6:p:1126-1132
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jayaswal, Sachin & Agarwal, Prashant, 2013. "Balancing U-Shaped Assembly Lines with Resource Dependent Task Times: A Simulated Annealing Approach," IIMA Working Papers WP2013-11-06, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    2. Simon Thevenin & Nicolas Zufferey & Jean-Yves Potvin, 2017. "Makespan minimisation for a parallel machine scheduling problem with preemption and job incompatibility," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 1588-1606, March.
    3. Lopes, Thiago Cantos & Pastre, Giuliano Vidal & Michels, Adalberto Sato & Magatão, Leandro, 2020. "Flexible multi-manned assembly line balancing problem: Model, heuristic procedure, and lower bounds for line length minimization," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. Delorme, Xavier & Dolgui, Alexandre & Kovalyov, Mikhail Y., 2012. "Combinatorial design of a minimum cost transfer line," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 31-41, January.
    5. Battaïa, Olga & Dolgui, Alexandre, 2013. "A taxonomy of line balancing problems and their solutionapproaches," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 259-277.
    6. Lai, Tsung-Chyan & Sotskov, Yuri N. & Dolgui, Alexandre, 2019. "The stability radius of an optimal line balance with maximum efficiency for a simple assembly line," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(2), pages 466-481.
    7. De Bruecker, Philippe & Van den Bergh, Jorne & Beliën, Jeroen & Demeulemeester, Erik, 2015. "Workforce planning incorporating skills: State of the art," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(1), pages 1-16.
    8. Dolgui, Alexandre & Kovalev, Sergey & Kovalyov, Mikhail Y. & Malyutin, Sergey & Soukhal, Ameur, 2018. "Optimal workforce assignment to operations of a paced assembly line," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 200-211.
    9. Guschinskaya, Olga & Dolgui, Alexandre, 2009. "Comparison of exact and heuristic methods for a transfer line balancing problem," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 276-286, August.
    10. Olcay Polat & Can B. Kalayci & Özcan Mutlu & Surendra M. Gupta, 2016. "A two-phase variable neighbourhood search algorithm for assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem type-II: an industrial case study," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 722-741, February.
    11. Battaïa, Olga & Delorme, Xavier & Dolgui, Alexandre & Hagemann, Johannes & Horlemann, Anika & Kovalev, Sergey & Malyutin, Sergey, 2015. "Workforce minimization for a mixed-model assembly line in the automotive industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PB), pages 489-500.
    12. Pabolu, Venkata Krishna Rao & Shrivastava, Divya & Kulkarni, Makarand S., 2022. "Modelling and prediction of worker task performance using a knowledge-based system application," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    13. Benavides, Alexander J. & Ritt, Marcus & Miralles, Cristóbal, 2014. "Flow shop scheduling with heterogeneous workers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(2), pages 713-720.
    14. Costa, Alysson M. & Miralles, Cristóbal, 2009. "Job rotation in assembly lines employing disabled workers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 625-632, August.
    15. Lai, Tsung-Chyan & Sotskov, Yuri N. & Dolgui, Alexandre & Zatsiupa, Aksana, 2016. "Stability radii of optimal assembly line balances with a fixed workstation set," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 356-371.

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