Sequencing in an Assembly Line with Blocking to Minimize Cycle Time

S. Thomas McCormick, Michael L. Pinedo, Scott Shenker and Barry Wolf
Additional contact information
S. Thomas McCormick: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Michael L. Pinedo: Columbia University, New York
Scott Shenker: Xerox Corporation Research Center, Palo Alto, California
Barry Wolf: Xerox Corporation Research Center, North Tarrytown, New York

Operations Research, 1989, vol. 37, issue 6, 925-935

Abstract: We consider an assembly line with m stations in series having finite capacity buffers. Blocking occurs when buffers are full. There are M different types of products to be assembled, each with its own processing requirements. There is a production target set for each type. The problem is to operate the line to maximize throughput. We propose heuristic approaches to this problem based on an equivalent maximum flow problem and on critical path techniques.

Keywords: manufacturing: flexible assembly lines; networks: max flow dual of shortest path; production/scheduling: cyclic scheduling heuristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1989
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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