STRATEGIC ALLOCATION OF INSPECTION STATIONS FOR A FLOW ASSEMBLY-LINE - A HYBRID PROCEDURE

A hybrid method is presented for the design of inspection stations in serial production systems. The hybrid method combines a constrained bo ttleneck shortest path algorithm and discrete event simulation. The ne twork method determines the allocation of the inspection stations and the simulation helps the decision maker estimate accurately the possib le outcome of the allocation. A computational study with the method is performed based on a practical problem. Other aspects related to the application of the method to real problems are also discussed.