Mathematical model and a variable neighborhood search algorithm for mixed-model robotic two-sided assembly line balancing problems with sequence-dependent setup times

Abstract

Human labor is generally being replaced with robots for high automation, increased fexibility, and reduced costs in modern industry. Few studies consider the sequencedependent setup times in the assembly line balancing literature. However, it should not be overlooked in a real-life setting. This article presents a new mathematical model and variable neighborhood search (VNS) algorithm for mixed-model robotic two-sided assembly line balancing, with the aim of minimizing the cycle time by considering the sequence-dependent setup times. The efectiveness of the proposed VNS is tested with a set of test problems from the literature. The computational results and statistical analysis indicate that the proposed method yields promising results.