Assembly Line Balancing

In an assembly line, the same product is manufactured in large volumes. Each unit that is
manufactured has to go through the same sequence of operations or tasks which are performed at
a set number of workstations. Assembly line balancing involves the determination of the number
of workstations and the assignment of the tasks to these workstations. It is called balancing
because you want to assign these tasks in such a way that each of the workstations takes the
same time to perform their assigned tasks.

The objective is to achieve 'synchronous flow.’

Assembly Line Balancing strikes a balance between minimizing WIP inventory and
minimizing idle time. Do they work against each other?

Example: Let us see how a typical assembly line works. An assembly line has 5 workstations
(w/s). Each unit of the product being manufactured has to go through these 5 w/s sequentially.
One or more tasks (processes) may be performed at each of the w/s. Once the production has
reached a steady state (i.e., after some units have been produced), you may see the following
scenario at one time:
W/S
1 2 3 4 5
Unit #s75 74 73 72 71
At exactly the same instant, all these w/s complete the assembly tasks on their units and
the following scenario can be seen:

W/S
1 2 3 4 5
Unit #s76 75 74 73 72

While unit # 71 is fully assembled and shipped out,

unit # 76 will enter the assembly line at w/s 1.

The time taken for each unit at each w/s is called the Cycle Time.

Also, Cycle Time is the frequency at which finished units come out of the assembly line.
Why? Because that is the rate at which the last w/s (and all w/s) completes the production of
units. You can determine the cycle time for an assembly line by

Cycle Time = Total available Production Time / # of units to be produced

The total time spent by each unit in the assembly line is

Lead Time = Cycle Time x # of w/s

(Prashanth B. Nagendra)
Numerical Example:
Computer Assembly requires the following tasks in the given sequence:
Task Immediate Task time Network Diagram
Predecessor (minutes)
1 - 12
2 1 6
3 2 6
4 2 2
5 2 2
6 2 12
7 3,4 7
8 7 5
9 5 1
10 9,6 4
11 8,10 6
12 11 7
Total task time =70
Desired Output rate = Demand rate = 140 computers/week
The assembly line operates for 1 shift/day (7 hours), 5 days a week.
Cycle Time =
Theoretical # of w/s =
Assign tasks to w/s without violating cycle time, precedence, and zoning (not given for this
example) constraints.
Note: There are numerous heuristic algorithms for this assignment.

Workstation 1 2 3 4 5
Tasks assigned

Time remaining
Idle Time (Final)

Lead-time =
Efficiency =
Try this on your own:
If Cycle Time = 16, # of w/s = 5 Output = 26 LT = Efficiency =
If Cycle Time = 13, # of w/s = 6 Output = 32 LT = Efficiency =
In general,
Increasing Cycle Time Decreases # of w/s Decreases output
Decreasing Cycle Time Increases # of w/s Increases output

So, strike a balance between Cost to add a w/s & Profit by extra production
(Prashanth B. Nagendra)
(Prashanth B. Nagendra)