Assembly line balancing, proposal of a new methodology: integrated balancing method

Abstract

In industrial plants, line balancing problems do not often find an objective solution and production managers often allocate tasks to operators without following a real methodology, but basing on personal experience; therefore, there are many problems when quick changes of capacity or constraints occur. The starting point of this study is the investigation of the main balancing methodologies, understanding their advantages and disadvantages in assigning homogenously tasks to workers. We propose new assembly lines balancing technique simple, general and effective, able to solve some ambiguity in balancing. Thanks to the proposed research, integration and a progress of classic methodologies have been realised. The method proposed, called IBM - integrated balancing method, has been applied to a real case study (the assembly line of a multinational company), in order to show its capacity of supporting production managers in designing and optimising assembly lines (ALBPs).