Mixed-model assembly line sequencing using beam search

Creative Commons License

Erel E., Gocgunz Y., Sabuncuoglu I.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH, vol.45, no.22, pp.5265-5284, 2007 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 45 Issue: 22
  • Publication Date: 2007
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/00207540600806497
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.5265-5284
  • Abdullah Gül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

In today's manufacturing environments, companies have to produce a large variety of products in small quantities on a single assembly line. In this paper, we use a beam search (BS) approach to solve the model-sequencing problem of mixed-model assembly lines (MMALs). Specifically, we develop six BS algorithms for part-usage variation and load-leveling performance measures. The results of computational experiments indicate that the proposed BS methods are competitive with the well-known heuristics in the literature. A comprehensive bibliography is also provided.