A SEQUENCING PROBLEM FOR A MIXED-MODEL ASSEMBLY-LINE IN A JIT PRODUCTION SYSTEM

In an assembly line of a just-in-time (JIT) production system, workers have the power and the responsibility to stop the line when they fail to complete their operations within their work zones. This paper deal s with a sequencing problem for the mixed-model assembly conveyor line in the JIT production system. In some environment, the most important criterion is the line stoppage rather than the variation of productio n rates. The problem is to find an optimal sequence of units that mini mizes the total line stoppage time. Lower and upper bounds of the tota l line stoppage time are derived and the branch-and-bound method is ap plied to the problem, A numerical example is given.