Planning method for a changeable line balancing of synchronized flow assembly systems

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Current trends, such as customers' demand for individual products and shorter product life cycles, are addressed by companies through a greater variety of products and variants. With regard to the line balancing of synchronized flow assembly systems, however, adjustments are associated with high investments, which requires a new methodology for assembly line balancing. Existing approaches do not consider the reallocation of work operations or the dimensioning of system-inherent flexibility and changeability according to requirements. Furthermore, they neglect the uncertainty of the future market situation. The proposed project aims at a methodology for the line balancing of synchronized flow assembly systems, taking into account the potential need for adaptation in order to meet this uncertain planning environment. For this purpose, the exchange of occurring costs as well as flexibility and changeability of the system is focused. Based on scenarios, potential future compositions of the variant mix are investigated and the resulting implications for the assembly system are derived. Within the proposed planning methodology, an adequate adaptable assembly line balancing is generated by conducting a mixed-integer optimization. Since the evaluation and identification of adequacy are subject to subjective factors, several potentially adequate solutions are generated, which differ in terms of costs, flexibility and changeability. Using post-processing methods, the generated solutions are subsequently processed and transferred to a multi-criteria selection method for evaluating the alternatives.