Assembly line balancing with fractional task allocations

Thiago Cantos Lopes, Nadia Brauner and Leandro Magatão

International Journal of Production Research, 2022, vol. 60, issue 5, 1569-1586

Abstract: Assembly line balancing usually presupposes binary task-station assignments. Some authors have previously described efficiency increases due to fractional task allocations or work-sharing. However, the internal storage requirements for such efficiency increases have not been analytically described. This paper defines the Fractional Allocation Assembly Line Balancing Problem and presents mixed-integer linear programming models to bridge that gap. The main opportunity afforded by the studied flexibility is increased throughput, which is associated to higher internal storage costs. Worst-case analyses define mathematical expressions for these costs both for paced (line length) and unpaced lines (buffers). A screening on a 1050-instance dataset is conducted. Results suggest that fractional allocations can often allow better resource utilisation with relatively low costs: the higher space requirement costs are often one-time investments, while lower cycle time represents fundamentally continuous gains. Lastly, the proposed formulation was adapted and applied to industrial data. This mixed-model assembly line case study suggests that fractional allocations can also lead to more robust balancing regarding demand uncertainty.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2020.1866224

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