Assembly Line Balancing

BBA 530 – Section 1

Brigham Young University
 Outline
• What is Assembly Line Balancing?
• How can Assembly Line Balancing benefit
your operations?
• Classic approach to ALB
• Let’s practice!
• ALB in the real world
• Conclusions
What is Assembly Line Balancing (ALB)?
ALB is the procedure to assign tasks to
workstations so that:
•Precedence relationship is complied with
•No workstation takes more than the cycle
time to complete
•Operational idle time is minimized
How can Assembly Line Balancing benefit
your operations?
A balanced line:
• Promotes one piece flow
• Avoids excessive work load in some stages
(overburden)
• Minimizes wastes (over-processing, inventory,
waiting, rework, transportation, motion)
• Reduces variation
 Unbalanced Line
 !? Zzz Zzz

Work Work Work Work

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3 Station 4

10 sec 40 sec! 20 sec 15 sec

Undesirable waiting

Overproduction!

Generates waste
 Balanced Line
   

Work Work Work Work

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3 Station 4

25 sec 25 sec 20 sec 15 sec

•Promotes one piece flow

•Avoids overburden
•Minimizes wastes
 Line Balancing prerequisites
Prior to balancing a line we must:
• Determine the required workstation cycle
time (or TAKT time), matching the pace of
the manufacturing process to customer
demand
• Standardize the process
 Classic approach to ALB
Also known as SALBP* (Simple Assembly Line
Balancing Problem), the classic approach to ALB
is an heuristic process to optimize assembly lines
simplifying the problem to a basic level of
complexity

*Dubbed SALBP by Becker and Scholl (2004)

 Example
The next table shows the tasks performed in a
production line. Our goal is to combine them into
workstations. The assembly line operates 8 hours
per day and the expected customer demand is
1000 units per day. Balance the line and calculate
the efficiency and theoretical minimum number of
workstations.
 Example (cont.)
Task Task Time Preceding Task
(sec)
A 13 -
B 11 A
C 15 A
D 20 B
E 12 B
F 13 C
G 13 C
H 18 D, E
I 17 F, G
J 15 H, I
K 9 J
 Example (cont.)
• Step 1: Draw a precedence diagram according to the given sequential relationship

20 sec

11 sec D 18 sec
B
12 sec H
13 sec
E 15 sec 9 sec

A 13 sec J K

15 sec 17 sec
F

C I
13 sec

G
 Example (cont.)
• Step 2: Determine Takt time or Workstation Cycle Time

C=Production time per day / Customer demand (or output per day)
C= 28800 sec (8 hours) / 1000 units = 28.8

• Step 3: Determine the theoretical number of workstations

required

N= Total Task Time / Takt time

N= 156 / 28.8 = 5.42 (~6 workstations)
 Example (cont.)
• Step 4: Define your assignment rules. For
this example our primary rule will be
“number of following tasks” and the
secondary rule will be “longest operation
time”
 Example (cont.)
• Step 5: Assign tasks to workstations following the assignment rules
and meeting precedence and cycle time requirements

To form Workstation 1:
11 sec

13 sec B Following tasks: 5

A Lot: 15>11!
15 sec

C Following tasks: 5
WS1: A+C=28 sec
Cycle Time
met!
 Example (cont.)
• Forming Workstation 2:
20 sec
B+D>Cycle time!
D
11 sec

13 sec B 12 sec

E LOT:_F&G>E
A
15 sec 13 sec

C F WS2: Operation time=24 sec (<C)

13 sec

G Arbitrarily choose F
 Example (cont.)
• Following the same criteria we achieve our balancing with
7 workstations
Remaining Feasible Task with
Task with
Workstation Task Task Time Unassigned Remaining most
LOT
Time Tasks followers
A 13 15.8 B, C B, C C
1
C 15 0.8 -
B 11 17.8 E, F, G E, F, G F, G
2
F 13 4.8 -
3 D 20 8.8 -
G 13 15.8 E
4
E 12 3.8 -
5 H 18 10.8 -
6 I 17 11.8 -
J 15 13.8 K
7
K 9 4.8 -
 Example (cont.)
• Step 6: Calculate Efficiency

– Efficiency= Total Task Time / (Actual number of workstations *

Takt Time)

– Efficiency= 156 / (7*28.8) = 77%

How to interpret this efficiency?

Is this the best efficiency achievable?
 Let’s Practice
• We have found a new market for our product.
This market is less demanding so we have
decided not to include a particular feature,
specifically the feature added by task I. As a
consequence, task time in F drops to 5
seconds and task time in G drops to 8
seconds. Balance the line according to the
other conditions.
 Let’s practice (cont.)
Task Task Time Preceding Task
(sec)
A 13 -
B 11 A
C 15 A
D 20 B
E 12 B
F 13 5 C
G 13 8 C
H 18 D, E
I 17 F, G
J (new I) 15 H, F, G
K (new J) 9 I
 Let’s practice (cont.)
• Let’s take some time to solve this new
problem. This time we will calculate
keeping the primary and secondary rules as
in the original problem.
 Let’s practice (solution)
• Precedence diagram
20 sec

11 sec D 18 sec
B 12 sec H
13 sec
E 15 sec 9 sec

A 5 sec I* J*

15 sec F

C
8 sec
*Previously J & K respectively
G
 Let’s practice (solution)
• Takt time
C = 28,800 sec / 1000 units = 28.8
• Theoretical number of workstations
N = 126/28.8 = 4.38 (~5 workstations)
• Primary rule: number of following tasks
• Secondary rule: longest operation time
 Let’s practice (solution)
• Following the rules and observing cycle time and precedence
we obtain:
Remaining Feasible Task with
Task with
Workstation Task Task Time Unassigned Remaining most
LOT
Time Tasks followers

A 13 15.8 B, C B
1
B 11 4.8 -
C 15 13.8 E, F, G E
2
E 12 1.8 -
3 D 20 8.8 -
4 H 18 10.8
G 8 20.8 F
5 F 5 15.8 I
I 15 0.8 -
6 J 9 19.8 -
 Let’s practice (solution)
• Efficiency = 126/(6*28.8) = 73%

Challenge: Is this the best efficiency

achievable? Try to solve with LOT as the
primary rule and you will obtain a 5
workstations balance, increasing efficiency
to 87%
 ALB in the real world
The simple ALB problem approach is limited by some
constraints:
• Balance on existing and operating lines
– Workstations have spatial constraints
– Some workstations cannot be eliminated
– Need to smooth workload among workstations
• Multiple operators per workstation
– Different paces among operators, different lead times within the
same workstation
 ALB in the real world (cont.)
• Operator spatial constraints
– Different workstation imposed working positions
– More than one task to be performed in what should be the space for one
task
• Multiple Products
– Coping with different products, some operations are needed for some
products but not for others
– Some products can introduce “peak times” in some workstations
• Different task times performed in different shifts
– Particularly when introducing new employees or workers with some
degree of incapacity
 Conclusion
• Simply Assembly Line Balancing is a valid
method to optimize assembly lines. However,
many variables found in real operating lines
increase the complexity of the problem. More
complex algorithms have been developed to solve
the difficult task of balancing large scale industrial
lines. Some of them are commercially available in
software.
 References
• F. Robert Jacobs & Richard B. Chase “Operations and
Supply Management, The Core” McGraw-Hill/Irwin First
Edition
• Emanuel Falkenauer “Line Balancing in the real world”
Optimal Design
• Paul Swift.
http://www.beyondlean.com/line-balancing.html