In this paper we study an assembly line balancing problem that occurs in sheltered worker centers 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...

This paper presents an approach, based on ant techniques, to effectively address the assembly line balancing problem with the complicating factors of parallel workstations, stochastic task durations, and mixed-models. A methodology was inspired by the behavior of social insects in an attempt to distribute tasks among workers so that strategic performance measures are optimized. This methodology...

Assembly line balancing problems are concerned with the distribution of work required to assemble a product in mass or series production among a set of work stations on an assembly line. The specific problem considered here is known as the time and space constrained simple assembly line balancing problem. Among several possible objectives we consider the one of minimizing the number of necessar...