 Balancing parallel assembly lines with disabled workersFelipe F.B. Araújo, Alysson M. Costa and Cristóbal Miralles European Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2015, vol. 9, issue 3, 344-365 Abstract: In this paper, we study an assembly line balancing problem that occurs in sheltered worker centres for the disabled, where workers with very different characteristics are present. We are interested in the situation in which complete parallel assembly lines are allowed and name the resulting problem as parallel assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem (PALWABP). This approach enables many new possible worker-tasks assignments, what is beneficial in terms of both labour integration and productivity. We present a linear mixed-integer formulation and two heuristic solution methods: one is based on tabu search and the other is a biased random-key genetic algorithm (BRKGA). Computational results with a large set of instances recently proposed in the literature show the advantages of allowing such alternative line layouts. [Received 6 November 2013; Revised 14 February 2014; Accepted 26 March 2014] Keywords: parallel assembly lines; assembly line balancing; heuristics; heterogeneous workers; disabled workers; task assignment; disabilities; labour integration; productivity; tabu search; biased random-key GAs; genetic algorithms. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:eujine:v:9:y:2015:i:3:p:344-365 Access Statistics for this article More articles in European Journal of Industrial Engineering from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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