ASSEMBLY LINE BALANCING

 Determining the ideal number of workers to be assigned to a

production line and determining the number of workers to be
assigned to a workstation
 Rate of production depends on the slowest operator
 Efficiency of a line can be computed as the ratio of the total
actual standard minutes to the total allowed standard minutes
 Percentage of idle time is computed as 1 − 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦
 Number of operators, 𝑁
σ 𝑆𝑀
𝑁 = 𝑅 × ෍ 𝐴𝑀 = 𝑅 ×
𝐸
where:
𝑅 desired rate of production
𝑆𝑀 standard minutes per operation
𝐴𝑀 allowed standard minutes per operation
OPERATOR STD MINUTES TO WAIT TIME BASED STD
PERFORM ON SLOWEST TIME
OPERATION OPERATOR
1 0.52 0.13 0.65
2 0.48 0.17 0.65
3 0.65 - 0.65
4 0.41 0.24 0.65
5 0.55 0.10 0.65
2.61 3.25

σ51 𝑆𝑀 2.61
𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 = 5 = = 80.31%
σ1 𝐴𝑀 3.25
OPERATION STD The line must produce 700 units per day on
MINUTES a 480-minute workhour. Estimate the
1 1.25 number of operators required for a given
2 1.38 level of efficiency (ideal efficiency of
100.00% and realistic efficiency of 95.00%)
3 2.58
4 3.84
5 1.27 Rate of production is 1.46 units/min
6 1.29 23 operators (100.00% efficiency)
7 2.48
24 operators (95.00% efficiency)
8 1.28
OPERATION STD STD MINUTES NO. OF Number of minutes
MINUTES (min/unit) OPERATORS allowable to produce one
1 1.25 1.81 2 unit is 0.69 minutes
2 1.38 2.00 2
3 2.58 3.74 4
4 3.84 5.57 6
5 1.27 1.84 2
6 1.29 1.87 2
7 2.48 3.59 4
8 1.28 1.86 2
LINE BALANCING

 Minimum number of workstations,

σ𝑛𝑖=1 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑖
=
𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

 Efficiency of line
σ𝑛𝑖=1 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑖
=
(𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛) × (𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑇)
LAYOUT HEURISTICS

 Longest task time

 Most following tasks
 Ranked positional weight
 Shortest task time
 Least number pf following tasks
TASK IMMEDIATE TASK TIME
A - 10 minutes Suppose that the line must
B A 11 minutes produce 40 units per day on a
C B 5 minutes 480-minute working-hour time
frame. Plan an assembly line
D B 4 minutes and estimate the number of
E A 12 minutes workstations required using the
F C, D 3 minutes heuristics (first, most number of
following tasks, then longest
G F 7 minutes task time).
H E 11 minutes
I G, H 3 minutes
TASK IMMEDIATE TASK TIME
A - 10 minutes 1. Identify minimum cycle time
B A 11 minutes (CT)
C B 5 minutes 2. Identify total processing
time
D B 4 minutes
3. Compute for probable
E A 12 minutes outputs produced given
F C, D 3 minutes minimum CT.
G F 7 minutes 4. Compute for CT given the
required outputs.
H E 11 minutes
5. Compute for the number of
I G, H 3 minutes workstations.
TASK IMMEDIATE TASK TIME
A - 10 minutes 1. Minimum CT is 12 minutes
B A 11 minutes per unit
C B 5 minutes 2. Total processing time is
66 minutes
D B 4 minutes
3. 40 units can be produced
E A 12 minutes based from the total
F C, D 3 minutes working-hours given
minimum CT
G F 7 minutes
4. CT is 12 minutes per unit
H E 11 minutes
5. Number of workstations is
I G, H 3 minutes 5.42 or 6
TASK IMME- TASK WORK TIME TASK TASK TIME IDLE
DIATE TIME STATION REMAINING ELIGIBLE ASSIGNED
A - 10 1 12 A A -
B A 11 2 B,E - 2
C B 5 2 12 B,E B -
D B 4 1 C,D,E - 1
E A 12 3 12 C,D,E C -
F C, D 3 7 D,E,F D -
G F 7 3 E,F F -
H E 11 4 12 E,G E -
I G, H 3 0 G,H - -
5 12 G,H H -
1 G,I - 1
6 12 G,I G -
5 I I 2
TASK IMME- TASK
DIATE TIME
A - 10
B A 11
C B 5
D B 4
E A 12
F C, D 3
G F 7
H E 11
I G, H 3
 WORK TIME TASK TASK TIME IDLE
STATION REMAINING ELIGIBLE ASSIGNED
1 12 A A -
2 B,E - 2
2 12 B,E B -
Total idle time = 6
1 C,D,E - 1
minutes
3 12 C,D,E C -
Efficiency = 90.28%
7 D,E,F D -
Percentage idle = 3 E,F F -
9.72% 4 12 E,G E -
0 G,H - -
5 12 G,H H -
1 G,I - 1
6 12 G,I G -
5 I I 2
Given the same task specifications, the line is now required to
only produce 20 units per day on a 480-minute working-hour time
frame. Identify the new number of workstations (use the same
heuristics).