Assembly Line Balancing

Assembly Operation
Assembly operation is the process of
combining the parts of a product in a
systematic and orderly fashion. One of the
important tasks in manufacturing
environment is to design assembly lines in
such a way that the demand for the products
are met and the productivity of the assembly
line is maximized.

Example
Consider a product whose assembly process involves 11
tasks whose immediate predecessors and times are listed in
the table below.
TASK NUMBER

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

IMMEDIATE
PREDECESSOR
1,2
2
4
3
6
6
5,7
8,9
10

TASK TIME (minutes)

0.4
0.7
0.5
0.4
0.7
0.2
0.1
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6

Precedence Diagram
1

10

11

Desired Cycle Time

suppose that a production rate of 1,300 units per
day is desired. And the factory will operate three
shifts per day. Therefore, operating three shifts per
day at a 90 percent efficiency amounts to
approximately (1,300/3) = 433 units per shift
productive capacity.
To estimate the required cycle time we first
compute the productive hours for each shift. This is
(8 hours per shift)(0.9 efficiency) = 7.2 hours per
shift. Thus, the desired cycle time is given by
C = [(7.2 hrs. per shift)x(60 min. per
hour)]/(number of units per shift required)
C = (7.2)x(60)/433 = 0.9977 min.

Assembly Line Balancing

Heuristic
Assignable
Job
Task
1
2

1
4

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time
0.4
0.7

Assignable
Job
Task

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 1

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 1

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time

0.4
0.4

0.7

Assembly Line Balancing

Heuristic
Assignable
Job
Task
4
3

4
6

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time
0.4
0.5

Assignable
Job
Task

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 2
1

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 2

0.4

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time

0.4
0.2

1, 3

0.9

Assembly Line Balancing

Heuristic
Assignable
Job
Task
5
6

5
8
7

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time
0.7
0.2

Assignable
Job
Task

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 3
4

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 3

0.4

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time
0.7
0.3
0.1

4, 6

0.6

Assembly Line Balancing

Heuristic
Assignable
Job
Task
5
7

5
9

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time
0.7
0.1

Assignable
Job
Task

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 3
4, 6, 8

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 3

0.9

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time

0.7
0.4

4, 6, 8, 7

1.0

Assembly Line Balancing

Heuristic
Assignable
Job
Task
9

10

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time
0.4

Assignable
Job
Task

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 4
5

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 5

0.7

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time

0.5

0.4

Assembly Line Balancing

Heuristic
Assignable
Job
Task
11

Tasks already
assigned to
Station 5

Sum of task time

at this Station

Time
0.6

9, 10

0.9

Station Assignment
STATION

TASKS
ASSIGNED

1
2
3
4
5
6

2
1,3
4,6,8,7
5
9,10
11

SUM OF
TASK
TIMES
0.7
0.9
1.0
0.7
0.9
0.6

IDLE TIME

0.3
0.1
0.0
0.3
0.1
0.4

Efficiency

Line efficiency =
(0.7+0.9+1.0+0.7+0.9+0.6)/[(1.0)x(6)] = 0.80

Therefore, this line will operate at 80 percent

efficiency and it will stay idle 20 percent of the time.