Line balancing belongs to a class of intensively studied combinatorial optimization problems known to be NP-hard in general. For several decades, the core problem originally introduced for manual assembly has been extended to suit robotic, machining and disassembly contexts. However, despite...

In this paper, a new transfer line balancing problem is considered. The main difference from the simple assembly line balancing problem is that the operations are grouped into blocks (batches). All the operations of the same block are carried out simultaneously by one piece of equipment...

We study an optimal design problem for serial machining lines. Such lines consist of a sequence of stations. At every station, the operations to manufacture a product are grouped into blocks. The operations within each block are performed simultaneously by the same spindle head and the blocks of...

Two variants of genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the Supply Management Problem with Lower-Bounded Demands (SMPLD) are proposed and experimentally tested. The SMPLD problem consists in planning the shipments from a set of suppliers to a set of customers minimizing the total cost, given lower...

Design problems constitute the first stage in developing a machining transfer line. This paper is concerned with a problem in which a transfer line has to be designed in an optimal way to produce parts of different types. Each part of a specific type requires a unique set of operations to be...