This paper presents a multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for worker assignment and mixed-model assembly line balancing problem when task times depend on the worker’s skill level. The objectives of this model are minimization of the number of stations (equivalent to the maximization of the weighted line efficiency), minimization of the weighted smoothness index and minimization of the total human cost for a given cycle time. In addition, the performance of proposed algorithm is evaluated against a set of test problems with different sizes. Also, its efficiency is compared with a Simulated Annealing algorithm (SA) in terms of the quality of objective functions. Results show the proposed algorithm performs well, and it can be used as an efficient algorithm. This paper presents a multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for worker assignment and mixed-model assembly line balancing problem when task times depend on the worker’s skill level. The objectives of this model are minimization of the number of stations (equivalent to the maximization of the weighted line efficiency), minimization of the weighted smoothness index and minimization of the total human cost for a given cycle time. In addition, the performance of proposed algorithm is evaluated against a set of test problems with different sizes. Also, its efficiency is compared with a Simulated Annealing algorithm (SA) in terms of the quality of objective functions. Results show the proposed algorithm performs well, and it can be used as an efficient algorithm Manuscript profile

In today’s competitive market, those producers who can quickly adapt themselves todiverse demands of customers are successful. Therefore, in order to satisfy these demands of market, Mixed-model assembly line (MMAL) has an increasing growth in industry. A mixed-model assembly line (MMAL) is a type of production line in which varieties of products with common base characteristics are assembled on. This paper focuses on this type of production line in a stochastic environment with three objective functions: 1) total utility work cost, 2) total idle cost, and 3) total production rate variation cost that are simultaneously considered. In real life, especially in manual assembly lines, because of some inevitable human mistakes, breakdown of machines, lack of motivation in workers and the things alike, events are notdeterministic, sowe consideroperation time as a stochastic variable independently distributed with normal distributions; for dealing with it, chance constraint optimization is used to model the problem. At first, because of NP-hard nature of the problem, multi-objective harmony search (MOHS) algorithm is proposed to solve it. Then, for evaluating the performance of the proposed algorithm, it is compared with NSGA-II that is a powerful and famous algorithm in this area. At last, numerical examples for comparing these two algorithms with some comparing metrics are presented. The results have shown that MOHS algorithm has a good performance in our proposed model. Manuscript profile

This paper presents a new nonlinear mathematical model to solve a cell formation problem which assumes that processing time and inter-arrival time of parts are random variables. In this research, cells are defined as a queue system which will be optimized via queuing theory. In this queue system, each machine isassumed as a server and each part asa customer. The grouping of machines and parts are optimized based on the mean waiting time. For solving exactly, the proposed model is linearized. Since the cell formation problem is NP-Hard, two algorithms based on genetic and modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) algorithms are developed to solve the problem. For generating of initial solutions in these algorithms, a new heuristic method is developed, which always creates feasible solutions. Also, full factorial and Taguchi methods are used to set the crucial parameters in the solutions procedures. Numerical experiments are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms. The results of the study show that the proposed algorithms are capable of generating better quality solutions in much less time. Finally, a statistical method is used which confirmed that the MPSO algorithm generates higher quality solutions in comparison with the genetic algorithm (GA). Manuscript profile