Assembly Line Balancing: Application in a Furniture Company
Abstract
The assembly line balancing problem is the process of assigning tasks to workstations in such a way as to reduce lost time and increase the efficiency of the line, while respecting certain technology-driven precedence relationships and constraints such as capacity. Due to the large and complex design of assembly lines, the smallest disruption and imbalance at any one station can affect the entire line performance. To minimize or avoid such disruptions, the assembly line must be balanced. This study focuses on a detailed analysis process to identify specific problems and disruptions in the assembly line. The line balancing application in the study was carried out as a case study in a furniture company's bed base production line. The production line was first surveyed and workflows, task durations and precedence diagrams were identified. The assembly line balancing problem was solved by using Positional Weighting, Largest Candidate and Kilbridge-Wester methods and the results were compared. Thanks to the balancing studies, the workflow has been streamlined, the use of workstations has been optimized and the production processes have been managed more effectively.
Keywords
Assembly line balancing, Workstation, Positional weight, Largest candidate, Kilbridge-Wester
Supporting Institution
TÜBİTAK
Project Number
1919B012306186
Thanks
We would like to thank the TÜBİTAK 2209-A program for their support in this study.
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