LINE BALANCING WITH GENETIC ALGORITHMS

Abstract. This work analyzes a version of the line balancing problem of the type GALB (General Assembly Line Balancing), which uses genetic algorithms for its solution and it compares its performance with other heuristics. Hypotheses of the SALB (Simple Assembly Line Balancing) problems were relaxed. In the present problem, there is a reduced number of pieces of equipment allocated between the workstations and each task can be executed only in a specific type of equipment, so that the stations are not capable of executing any task. The workstations don't possess necessarily the same production capacity, so that the processing time of a task can depend on where it is allocated. The applied criterion as objective function is the same of the SALB-II, that is, the maximization of the production rate for a given number of stations