FICO Xpress Optimization Examples Repository
 FICO Optimization Community FICO Xpress Optimization Home

Line balancing

Description
A product is produced on an assembly lines with four workstations. It is assembled in twelve operations between which there are certain precedence constraints. The duration of every task is given. We would like to distribute the tasks among the workstations in order to balance the line to obtain the shortest possible cycle time, that is, the total time required for assembling the product. Every task needs to be assigned to a single workstation that has to process it without interruption. Every workstation deals with a single operation at a time.

Further explanation of this example: 'Applications of optimization with Xpress-MP', Section 7.6 'Assembly line balancing' (b6linebal.mos)

Source Files
By clicking on a file name, a preview is opened at the bottom of this page.

Data Files

linebal_graph.mos

(!******************************************************
Mosel Example Problems
======================

file linebal.mos

TYPE:         Line balancing problem
DIFFICULTY:   2
FEATURES:     MIP problem, encoding of arcs, range', formulation of
sequencing constraints
DESCRIPTION:  A product is produced on an assembly lines with four
workstations. It is assembled in twelve operations between
which there are certain precedence constraints. The duration
of every task is given. We would like to distribute the
tasks among the workstations in order to balance the line to
obtain the shortest possible cycle time, that is, the total
time required for assembling the product. Every task needs
to be assigned to a single workstation that has to process
it without interruption. Every workstation deals with a
single operation at a time.
FURTHER INFO: Applications of optimization with Xpress-MP',
Section 7.6 Assembly line balancing'

(c) 2008 Fair Isaac Corporation
author: S. Heipcke, 2002, rev. Sep. 2017
*******************************************************!)

model "Assembly line balancing"
uses "mmxprs", "mmsvg"

declarations
MACH=1..4                             ! Set of workstations

ARC: array(RA:range, 1..2) of integer ! Precedence relations between tasks

process: array(TASKS,MACH) of mpvar   ! 1 if task on machine, 0 otherwise
cycle: mpvar                          ! Duration of a production cycle
end-declarations

initializations from 'linebal.dat'
DUR ARC
end-initializations

forall(a in RA) Prec(a):= sum(m in MACH) m*process(ARC(a,1),m) <=
sum(m in MACH) m*process(ARC(a,2),m)

! Cycle time
forall(m in MACH) Cycle(m):= sum(i in TASKS) DUR(i)*process(i,m) <= cycle

forall(i in TASKS, m in MACH) process(i,m) is_binary

! Minimize the duration of a production cycle
minimize(cycle)

! Solution printing
writeln("Minimum cycle time: ", getobjval)
forall(m in MACH) do
write("Workstation ", m, ":")
write(if(getsol(sum(k in MACH) k*process(i,k)) = m, " "+i, ""))
writeln(" (duration: ", getsol(sum(i in TASKS) DUR(i)*process(i,m)),")")
end-do

! Solution drawing
YFAC:=2
svgsetgraphviewbox(0,0,round(getobjval)+5, MACH.size*YFAC+2)
svgsetgraphlabels("Time","Workstations")
forall(m in MACH) do
cum:=0.0
forall(i in TASKS | getsol(sum(k in MACH) k*process(i,k)) = m ) do
`