Keywords

Apple IIc (Computer), Assembly line balancing, Heuristic programming

Abstract

Development, operation, and testing of a heuristic line balancing program for a microcomputer are discussed. Tasks are grouped into work stations along an assembly line such that the number of work stations required is minimized.

The model is built primarily using the Hoffman (1963) procedure with modifications described by Gehrlein and Patterson (1975). For purposes of comparison the Rank Positional Weight technique (Helgeson and Birnie, 1961) is also included in the model.

Testing included thirty-seven different balances using problems from the literature. For each balance, both Rank Positional Weight and Hoffmann solutions were obtained in the forward and reverse directions.

Four measures of performance were considered in this study. These measures of performance were: (1) the average percentage a balance is above the optimum solutions, in terms of number of stations; (2) time to obtain a balance; (3) the best solution in terms of the lowest number of stations and lowest standard deviation of the slack times; and (4) the largest value of minimum station slack time. Overall it was found that the Hoffmann procedure with a delay factor if 1.5 was best suited for the microcomputer application. Further work is recommended to find the optimum delay factor and apply the Modified Hoffmann procedure to solving line balancing problems where the cycle time is minimized given a set of work stations.

Notes

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Graduation Date

1986

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Whitehouse, Gary E.

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Engineering

Department

Industrial Engineering and Management Systems

Format

PDF

Pages

74 p.

Language

English

Rights

Public Domain

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Identifier

DP0020306

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

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