Solving assembly line balancing problem using heuristic: a case study of power transformer in electrical industry

Abstract

Currently, problem in assembly line has created so much attention, particularly in manufacturing area. Similar to this case study as they faced with problems regarding workstation in production line of electrical industry. There exist some cases where workstations in assembly line are experienced with bottleneck and suffered from high idle time. Thus, four heuristic methods are used for minimizing number or workstations and improve the bottleneck problems at the same time. In this case study, LCR, RPW and LPT have successfully minimized the number of workstations from 19 to 16. This solution has affected the layout of assembly line. Different from SPT that manage to improve the bottleneck among workstations by reducing number of workstations from 19 to 17 without changing the line layout. Therefore, both solution has brought an option for an engineer to choose which decision to be used in this assembly line in order to increase the line efficiency.