Mathematical model and a variable neighborhood search algorithm for mixed-model robotic two-sided assembly line balancing problems with sequence-dependent setup times

Human labor is generally being replaced with robots for high automation, increased flexibility, and reduced costs in modern industry. Few studies consider the sequence-dependent setup times in the assembly line balancing literature. However, it should not be overlooked in a real-life setting. This article presents a new mathematical model and variable neighborhood search (VNS) algorithm for mixed-model robotic two-sided assembly line balancing, with the aim of minimizing the cycle time by considering the sequence-dependent setup times. The effectiveness of the proposed VNS is tested with a set of test problems from the literature. The computational results and statistical analysis indicate that the proposed method yields promising results.