Assembly line balancing improves the efficiency of production systems by the optimal assignment of tasks to operators. The optimisation of this assignment requires models that provide information about the activity times, constraints and costs of the assignments. A multilayer network-based representation of the assembly line-balancing problem is proposed, in which the layers of the network represent the skills of the operators, the tools required for their activities and the precedence constraints of their activities. The activity–operator network layer is designed by a multi-objective optimisation algorithm in which the training and equipment costs as well as the precedence of the activities are also taken into account. As these costs are difficult to evaluate, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique is used to quantify the importance of the criteria. The optimisation problem is solved by a multi-level simulated annealing algorithm (SA) that efficiently handles the precedence constraints. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by a case study from wire harness manufacturing.

中文翻译：

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层次分析法和基于多层网络的流水线平衡方法

流水线平衡通过将任务分配给操作员来提高生产系统的效率。该分配的优化需要提供有关活动时间，约束和分配成本信息的模型。提出了基于多层网络的装配线平衡问题表示，其中网络的各个层代表了操作员的技能，他们的活动所需的工具以及他们活动的优先约束。活动-运营商网络层是通过多目标优化算法设计的，其中考虑了培训和设备成本以及活动的优先级。由于这些费用难以评估，层次分析法（AHP）技术用于量化标准的重要性。优化问题是通过有效处理优先级约束的多级模拟退火算法（SA）解决的。通过线束制造的案例研究证明了该方法的有效性。