Ant colony optimization for the single model U-type assembly line balancing problem

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Sabuncuoglu I., Erel E., Alp A.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION ECONOMICS, vol.120, no.2, pp.287-300, 2009 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 120 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2009
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2008.11.017
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION ECONOMICS
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.287-300
  • Abdullah Gül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

An assembly line is a production line in which units move continuously through a sequence of stations. The assembly line balancing problem is defined as the allocation of tasks to an ordered sequence of stations subject to precedence constraints with the objective of optimizing a performance measure. In this paper, we propose ant colony algorithms to solve the single-model U-type assembly line balancing problem. We conduct an extensive experimental study in which the performance of the proposed algorithm is compared against best known algorithms reported in the literature. The results indicate that the proposed algorithms display very competitive performance against them. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.