Researching and Applying the Line Balancing Methods in Optimizing Automobile Assembly Lines

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to researching basic methods of line balancing used widely in operations. Particularly, five basic methods including Longest task time, Shortest task time, Most following tasks, Least following task, Ranked positional weighted are researched. Then they are applied in balancing the assembly line of an automobile manufacturing company. The results show the comparisons of advantages and disadvantages of each method based on total idle time and efficiency index. Firstly, idle time is the waiting time or non-working time of the workers while they are still paid their enough salary. Moreover, the waiting time makes an unfair between workers - some people work more and some work less. Secondly, efficiency in the workplace is the time it takes to do something. Efficient employees and managers complete tasks in the least amount of time possible with the least amount of resources possible by utilizing certain time-saving strategies. The calculations are performed to create these two values and graphs are drawn with the support of excel softwares.