The Ergonomics Open Journal
2018, 11 : 1-10Published online 2018 June 29. DOI: 10.2174/1875934301811010001
Publisher ID: TOERGJ-11-1
REVIEW ARTICLE
A Mathematical Model For Assembly Line Balancing Problem Type 2 Under Ergonomic Workload Constraint
* Address correspondence to this authors at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Pamukkale University, 20160, Denizli, Turkey, Tel: +905064162900; Fax: +902582963262; E-mail: opolat@pau.edu.tr
ABSTRACT
Object:
Assembly lines are one of the essential parts of manufacturing systems that influence the overall cost and efficiency. The productivity of human resource in assembly lines directly affects the efficiency of the lines in practice.
Method:
Because of the heavy physical workloads along with monotonous body postures, the workers are dealing with low performance and Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). WMSDs result in high compensation costs for companies and totally decrease the life quality of the workers. In order to improve the efficiency of assembly lines, the companies should not only consider cycle time and precedence constraints, but also physical workloads of the stations. This paper addresses Assembly Line Balancing Problem (ALBP) Type 2 where the number of workstation lines is known. The main objective is balancing the cycle time and physical workload of the stations simultaneously. Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method from the literature is proposed to determine workload of operations.
Result:
A goal programming model is developed to solve the problem and a well-known small sized benchmark problem instance is used to illustrate the methodology.