Assembly line design in final assembly excavator at XYZ Corp using genetic algorithm

Abstract

Large scale manufacturing companies are growing along with ever-increasing demand from consumers, one of which is the heavy equipment industry. Excavators are the products of the heavy equipment division at XYZ Corp, where the Excavator assembly lines are single-model. Based on observations of existing conditions that occur at XYZ Corp, the production still cannot meet the demands of consumers. In the assembly process, the Excavator has a significant time difference from each work station, the distribution of work elements in the assembly process is uneven. In the Final assembly section (Zone C) there is a discrepancy between the takt time of Excavator products which is one reason for not achieving the demand. In resolving these problems, a line balancing process is needed, namely balancing workloads on each workstation. This study applies the Heuristic Priority Rules method as an initial solution and allocation constraint should be added as input from the Genetic Algorithms method to complete line balancing with a single-model system. Problems can be solved by increasing line efficiency from existing conditions by 60.4% to 91.74% and Smoothness index which decreases from 955.54 to 158.3977. The proposed result of balancing the final assembly of the excavator results in a better balance of assembly lines.