An advanced multiobjective genetic algorithm design for the time and space assembly line balancing problem

Time and space assembly line balancing considers realistic multiobjective versions of the classical assembly line balancing industrial problems involving the joint optimization of conflicting criteria such as the cycle time, the number of stations, and/or the area of these stations. In addition to their multi-criteria nature, the different problems included in this field inherit the precedence constraints and the cycle time limitations from assembly line balancing problems, which altogether make them very hard to solve. Therefore, time and space assembly line balancing problems have been mainly tackled using multiobjective constructive metaheuristics. Global search algorithms in general – and multiobjective genetic algorithms in particular – have shown to be ineffective to solve them up to now because the existing approaches lack of a proper design taking into account the specific characteristics of this family of problems. The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate the latter assumption by proposing an advanced multiobjective genetic algorithm design for the 1/3 variant of the time and space assembly line balancing problem which involves the joint minimization of the number and the area of the stations given a fixed cycle time limit. This novel design takes the well known NSGA-II algorithm as a base and considers the use of a new coding scheme and sophisticated problem specific operators to properly deal with the said problematic questions. A detailed experimental study considering 10 different problem instances (including a real-world instance from the Nissan plant in Barcelona, Spain) will show the good yield of the new proposal in comparison with the state-of-the-art methods. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.