Abstract In this study, a new extension of the semi-automated assembly line designing problem is presented. The main difference between this paper and existing work is that the energy consumption, smoothness index and total cost are all taken into consideration. The tasks can be performed by more than one format in the semi-automated assembly line, which means the operation time and energy consumption of tasks depend on the allocated stations. To obtain the trade-off among three objectives. First, a mathematical model with constraints is provided. Then, an improved whale optimization algorithm (IWOA) is presented, the chaotic maps, variable neighborhood search (VNS) and mutation are adopted to enhance the algorithm performance. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm and employed mechanisms, numerical comparison experiments are accordingly conducted. The results show that the specific designed algorithm outperforms five other well-known algorithms in solving the energy-oriented semi-automated assembly line designing problem. At last, the managerial insights are provided based on the sensitivity analysis. And a real case derives from car floor assembly system is used for validation of the proposed model and algorithm.

中文翻译：

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开发用于设计节能半自动装配线的数学模型和优化算法

摘要 在这项研究中，提出了半自动装配线设计问题的新扩展。本文与现有工作的主要区别在于将能耗、平滑度指标和总成本都考虑在内。在半自动化流水线中，任务可以以多种格式执行，这意味着任务的操作时间和能源消耗取决于分配的工位。获得三个目标之间的权衡。首先，提供了一个带有约束的数学模型。然后，提出了一种改进的鲸鱼优化算法（IWOA），采用混沌映射、可变邻域搜索（VNS）和变异来提高算法性能。为了证明算法和采用的机制的有效性，相应地进行数值比较实验。结果表明，特定设计的算法在解决面向能源的半自动化流水线设计问题方面优于其他五种众所周知的算法。最后，基于敏感性分析提供管理见解。一个来自汽车地板装配系统的真实案例用于验证所提出的模型和算法。