A branch-and-bound algorithm for assembly line worker assignment and balancing problems

In this paper, we studied the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem, which is an extension of the classical assembly line balancing problem in which an optimal partition of the assembly work among the stations is sought along with the assignment of the operators to the stations. The relationship between this problem and several other well-studied problems is explored, and new lower bounds are derived. Additionally, an exact enumeration algorithm, which makes use of the lower bounds, is developed to solve the problem. The algorithm is tested by using a standard benchmark set of instances. The results show that the algorithm improves upon the best-performing methods from the literature in terms of solution quality, and verifies more optimal solutions than the other available exact methods. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.