A two-phase variable neighbourhood search algorithm for assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem type-II: an industrial case study
针对工人技能影响任务时间的II类装配线问题，提出两阶段变邻域搜索算法，先分配任务再分配工人，在基准测试和液晶电视制造案例中优于现有方法，效率高且易实现。
The assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem type-II (ALWABP-2) occurs when workers and tasks (where task times depend on workers’ skills) are to be simultaneously assigned to a fixed number of workstations with the goal of minimising the cycle time. In this study, a two-phase variable neighbourhood search (VNS) algorithm is proposed to solve the ALWABP-2 due to the NP-hard nature of this problem. In the first phase of the algorithm, a VNS approach is applied to assign tasks to workstations with the aim of minimising the cycle time while in the second phase, a variable neighbourhood descent method is applied to assign workers to workstations. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on well-known benchmark instances. In addition, the proposed algorithm has been used to solve a real case study from a consumer electronics company that manufactures LCD TVs. The results show that the algorithm is superior to the methods reported in the literature in terms of its higher efficiency and robustness. Furthermore, the algorithm is easy to implement and significantly improves the performance of the final assembly line for the investigated LCD TV real case study.