A classification of assembly line balancing problems

TLDR

Assembly lines are critical flow‑line production systems for high‑volume standardized goods and increasingly for low‑volume customized products, yet high capital costs make line configuration planning essential, creating a gap between real‑world needs and existing research. To ease communication between researchers and practitioners, we provide a classification scheme of assembly line balancing. The authors propose a classification framework that categorizes assembly line balancing problems to facilitate communication. This is a valuable step in identifying remaining research challenges which might contribute to closing the gap.

Abstract

Assembly lines are special flow-line production systems which are of great importance in the indus-trial production of high quantity standardized commodities. Recently, assembly lines even gained importance in low volume production of customized products (mass-customization). Due to high capital requirements when installing or redesigning a line, its configuration planning is of great rele-vance for practitioners. Accordingly, this attracted attention of plenty researchers, who tried to sup-port real-world configuration planning by suited optimization models (assembly line balancing prob-lems). In spite of the enormous academic effort in assembly line balancing, there remains a consider-able gap between requirements of real configuration problems and the status of research. To ease communication between researchers and practitioners, we provide a classification scheme of assem-bly line balancing. This is a valuable step in identifying remaining research challenges which might contribute to closing the gap.