The purpose of the research presented in this paper has been to characterize flexibility in lean mixed model assembly lines through exploring mechanisms used to achieve flexibility. The study combines a literature review and a multiple case study in two manufacturing companies. Scenarios of volume, mix and operation flexibility, as well as flexibility to introduce or remove products were studie...

Mixed-model assembly lines allow for the simultaneous assembly of a set of similar models of a product, which may be launched in the assembly line in any order and mix. As current markets are characterized by a growing trend for higher product variability, mixed-model assembly lines are preferred over the traditional single-model assembly lines. This paper presents a mathematical programming mo...

In this paper an event and object oriented simulator for assembly lines is presented. The tool, developed in Java, is capable to simulate mixed model assembly lines, with stochastic task times, parallel stations, fixed scheduling sequences, and buffers within workstations. The simulator is a flexible supporting tool in finding solution of the mixed model assembly line balancing problem (and the...

Recently, there is a growing interest in the industry to replace traditional straight assembly lines with U-shaped lines for more flexibility and higher productivity. Due to mathematical and computational complexity, assembly line balancing problems are known to be NP hard in nature. Therefore, many meta-heuristics have been proposed to find optimal solution for these problems. This paper prese...

The strategic pricing decisions of assembly products in assembly products supply chain are studied in this paper. Firstly, a two-stage assembly products supply chain model is developed. By building Nash game model, the Nash equilibrium solution of pricing strategy of supplier and assemblers is obtained. Next, a union decision model is built to analyze the optimal combination pricing strategy of...