Aircraft Final Assembly Line Balancing and Workload Smoothing: A Methodological Analysis

Assembly Line Balancing (ALB) comprises ordering of tasks among workstations to satisfy precedence constraints and objective functions. Due to the specific features of an aircraft, such approach is not fully suitable for the case of an aircraft Final Assembly Line (FAL). Where, the number of workstations relates to technological criteria rather than to a calculation aiming to minimize a specific parameter. Workload smoothing is addressed once the FAL configuration is defined. To improve current practices, a methodological approach was taken to address the conceptual modeling of an aircraft assembly line.

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Analytic Hierarchy Process and Multilayer Network-Based Method for Assembly Line Balancing

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app10113932 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 3932

Author(s):

László Nagy ◽

Tamás Ruppert ◽

János Abonyi

Keyword(s):

Analytic Hierarchy Process ◽

Assembly Line ◽

Simulated Annealing Algorithm ◽

Production Systems ◽

Assembly Line Balancing ◽

Precedence Constraints ◽

Line Balancing ◽

Multilayer Network ◽

Analytic Hierarchy ◽

Hierarchy Process

Assembly line balancing improves the efficiency of production systems by the optimal assignment of tasks to operators. The optimisation of this assignment requires models that provide information about the activity times, constraints and costs of the assignments. A multilayer network-based representation of the assembly line-balancing problem is proposed, in which the layers of the network represent the skills of the operators, the tools required for their activities and the precedence constraints of their activities. The activity–operator network layer is designed by a multi-objective optimisation algorithm in which the training and equipment costs as well as the precedence of the activities are also taken into account. As these costs are difficult to evaluate, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique is used to quantify the importance of the criteria. The optimisation problem is solved by a multi-level simulated annealing algorithm (SA) that efficiently handles the precedence constraints. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by a case study from wire harness manufacturing.

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Study on Aircraft Assembly Line Balancing Problem Based on Mobile Workers

Volume 4: 21st Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference; 10th International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems ◽

10.1115/detc2016-60022 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Jie Zhang ◽

Bo Xin ◽

Pan Wang

Keyword(s):

Assembly Line ◽

Particle Swarm ◽

Assembly Line Balancing ◽

Line Balancing ◽

Stability And Convergence ◽

Particle Swarm Algorithm ◽

Binary Particle Swarm Optimization ◽

Assembly Lines ◽

Aircraft Assembly ◽

Assembly Line Balancing Problem

In order to improve the balance and load equilibrium of aircraft assembly lines, and to enhance the management of on-site resources, a Type-E balancing method was proposed based on the mobile operation of assembly personnel in the aircraft assembly line. This method was aimed to minimize the smoothness index of the overall assembly line and each assembly station, and also to minimize manpower costs. First, a model of personnel flow and an assembly line balancing model were constructed based on the characteristics of aircraft assembly lines. Next, an Accelerated Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (ABPSO) based on improved sig function was designed in order to improve the original stability and convergence of the standard binary particle swarm algorithm. Finally, the validity of the method was verified with a real fuselage assembly line and the results show the effectiveness.

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