Abstract:

Assembly line balancing is a problem where tasks assign to stations in compliance with precedence constraints and as far as possible to balance delays. Assembly lines which is not designed properly in an ergonomic way cause not only productivity loss but also work-related muscoloskeletal disorders on workers. To prevent such problems, it should be aimed to catch acceptable level for each workstation’s risk score and assign ergonomic risks equivalently among workers. In this study, for assembly line balancing problem, a new model approach is tackled, which constitute stations by consider ergonomic risk scores in addition to cycle time and precedence constraints. In order to compare proposed model with a classical assembly line balancing technique, a performance criterion which is combination of cycle time and ergonomic risk score were defined. The developed model was applied in a factory’s oven assembly line. In the assembly line, task times were measured, precedence diagram was constructed and ergonomic risk levels were evaulated by using REBA method. When balancing lines with using Longest Operation Times technique, performance score was %25.61 but when it comes to balance with developed model performance score was obtained %18.25. It has been detected that developed model provides 7.41% improvement in line’s total performance.

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