A model for line capacity design for PWB assembly systems

In a multi-product, flexible manufacturing environment, line capacity of pr inted wiring board (PWB) assembly systems map need to he designed at the be ginning of each aggregate planning period because of demand fluctuation ove r multiple periods. A model of line capacity design problem and production planning at the aggregate level is developed, in which production and subco ntracting are assumed to be two options for a firm to meet market demand. T he model presented is a large-scale integer programming problem, it cannot be solved by using standard- or mixed-integer programming codes. Under the assumption that each machine line is dedicated to produce one product famil y, the model can be decomposed as a relatively small subproblem, and each s ubproblem has good properties by which the subproblems can be further simpl ified and decomposed over multiple planning periods. As the result, the ori ginal large-scale two-stage integer programming problem can be approximatel y solved by solving a series of small-scale mixed-integer programming, whic h can be implemented on a workstation or a PC. Computational studies show t hat the solution method is developed which gives near-optimal solutions wit h much less computational effort. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.