Product customization requires flexibility from production systems, which is attainable by adopting assembly line configurations able to alternate different models of a same product, i.e., mixed model assembly lines. In these production arrangements, the assignment of tasks for work centers grows in complexity and single model balancing algorithms tend to perform poorly. This article presents a method to balance mixed model assembly lines based on algorithms available in the literature and in original proposals. A classification of balancing algorithms for the mixed model case is also presented, along with their most relevant features. The proposed method is applied to a case study from the home appliances industry.
Mixed model assembly line balancing; Classification of algorithms; Layout; Optimization
