Abstract
A variety of optimization problems determining a sequence in a mixed-model assembly line have been studied to improve the production efficiency like parts usage rate and workload. When a discrepancy among the assembly times is large in such production process, inefficiency such as line stop, increase in idle time, etc. will occur likely by using the conventional sequencing method. To cope with this problem, in this paper, we describe the model associated with the relief-men who are not in charge of regular operations. After formulating it as a combinatorial problem under mild conditions, we have developed a meta-heuristic algorithm to derive a near optimal solution. Finally, we evaluate the method through comparison based on numerical experiments.
