Two-sided assembly line balancing: A genetic algorithm approach

A two-sided assembly line balancing problem is typically found in plants producing large-sized high-volume products, e.g. buses and trucks. The features specific to the assembly line are described in this paper, which are associated with those of: (i) two-sided assembly lines; (ii) positional constraints; and (iii) balancing at the operational time. There exists a large amount of literature in the area of line balancing, whereby it has mostly dealt with one-sided assembly lines. A new genetic algorithm is developed to solve the problem, and its applicability and extensibility are discussed. A genetic encoding and decoding scheme, and genetic operators suitable for the problem are devised. This is particularly emphasized using problem-specific information to enhance the performance of the genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed GA has a strength that it is flexible in solving various types of assembly line balancing problems. An experiment is carried out to verify the performance of the GA, and the results are reported.