A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning Constraints

Two-sided assembly lines are widely used in the large-size product manufacturing industry, especially for automotive assembly production. Balancing the assembly line is significant for assembly process planning and assembly production. In this study, we develop a novel and exact method to optimize t...

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Main Authors: Qidong Yin, Xiaochuan Luo, Julien Hohenstein
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-01-01
Series:Journal of Mathematics
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/4196228
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author Qidong Yin
Xiaochuan Luo
Julien Hohenstein
author_facet Qidong Yin
Xiaochuan Luo
Julien Hohenstein
author_sort Qidong Yin
collection DOAJ
description Two-sided assembly lines are widely used in the large-size product manufacturing industry, especially for automotive assembly production. Balancing the assembly line is significant for assembly process planning and assembly production. In this study, we develop a novel and exact method to optimize the two-sided assembly line balancing problem with zoning constraints (TALBz), in which the aim is to minimize the number of mated-stations considering the task restrictions. A mixed-integer programming model is employed to exactly describe the TALBz problem. To strengthen the computational efficiency, we apply Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition to reformulate the TALBz problem. We further propose a branch-and-price (B&P) algorithm that integrates the column generation approach into a branch-and-bound frame. Both the benchmark datasets with zoning constraints and without zoning constraints are tested to evaluate the performance of the B&P algorithm. The numerical results show that our proposed approach can obtain optimal solutions efficiently on most cases. In addition, experiments on the real-world datasets originating from passenger vehicle assembly lines are conducted. The proposed B&P algorithm shows its advantage in tackling practical problems with the task restrictions. This developed methodology therefore provides insight for solving large-scale TALBz problems in practice.
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spelling doaj-art-19ce7b76b65e4ff7b6da4fddde6b3c8e2025-02-03T07:24:16ZengWileyJournal of Mathematics2314-47852021-01-01202110.1155/2021/4196228A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning ConstraintsQidong Yin0Xiaochuan Luo1Julien Hohenstein2College of Information Science and EngineeringCollege of Information Science and EngineeringiFactory Munich, BMW AGTwo-sided assembly lines are widely used in the large-size product manufacturing industry, especially for automotive assembly production. Balancing the assembly line is significant for assembly process planning and assembly production. In this study, we develop a novel and exact method to optimize the two-sided assembly line balancing problem with zoning constraints (TALBz), in which the aim is to minimize the number of mated-stations considering the task restrictions. A mixed-integer programming model is employed to exactly describe the TALBz problem. To strengthen the computational efficiency, we apply Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition to reformulate the TALBz problem. We further propose a branch-and-price (B&P) algorithm that integrates the column generation approach into a branch-and-bound frame. Both the benchmark datasets with zoning constraints and without zoning constraints are tested to evaluate the performance of the B&P algorithm. The numerical results show that our proposed approach can obtain optimal solutions efficiently on most cases. In addition, experiments on the real-world datasets originating from passenger vehicle assembly lines are conducted. The proposed B&P algorithm shows its advantage in tackling practical problems with the task restrictions. This developed methodology therefore provides insight for solving large-scale TALBz problems in practice.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/4196228
spellingShingle Qidong Yin
Xiaochuan Luo
Julien Hohenstein
A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning Constraints
Journal of Mathematics
title A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning Constraints
title_full A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning Constraints
title_fullStr A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning Constraints
title_full_unstemmed A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning Constraints
title_short A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Balancing Two-Sided Assembly Lines with Zoning Constraints
title_sort branch and price algorithm for balancing two sided assembly lines with zoning constraints
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/4196228
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