A linear physical programming model for assembly line balancing problem.

This paper deals with the mixed-model assembly line balancing problem. This type of line is applied to more than one similar model of a product in an intermixed order. Despite their widespread use, these lines have received little attention in the literature. Metaheuristics, heuristics, and mathematical programming techniques are developed to solve these types of assembly line balancing problems. However, linear physical programming method has never been used. In this paper, a linear physical programming model is proposed for balancing a mixed-model assembly line. The performance of the proposed model is applied to a numerical example to analyze the usage of the methodology. Five objectives are considered in the model, and the outperformance of the methodology is demonstrated by comparing it to a different approach. According to the results, it has been seen that the proposed linear physical programming model is practical and useful approach for mixed-model assembly line balancing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]