A Tabu Search Algorithm for the Parallel Assembly Line Balancing Problem

Abstract

In a production facility there may be more than one straight assembly line located in parallel. Balancing of parallel assembly lines will provide the flexibility to minimize the total number of workstations due to common resource. This type of problem is called as parallel assembly line balancing (PALB) problem. In this paper, a tabu search based approach is proposed for PALB problem with aim of maximizing line efficiency (LE) (or minimizing number of stations) and minimizing variation of workloads (V). This study is based on the study of Gokcen et al. [1]. The proposed approach is illustrated on a numerical example and its performance is tested on a set of well-known problems in the literature. This study is the first multi objective parallel assembly line balancing study in the literature. Key Words: Assembly line balancing; Parallel assembly lines; Tabu search.