Scheduling algorithms for an air conditioner manufacturing system composed of multiple parallel assembly lines

Abstract

This paper focuses on a scheduling problem in a manufacturing system composed of multiple parallel assembly lines. There are multiple orders to be processed in this system, and each order is specified by the product type, the number of products to be processed, and the due date. Each product is composed of two types of subassemblies, one unit of an external subassembly and one or more units of an internal subassembly. In the system, the parallel assembly lines are not identical, and certain lines are designated for certain product types. We present heuristic algorithms for the scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing total tardiness of orders. For an evaluation of the performance of the suggested algorithms, computational experiments are performed on a number of problem instances and results show that the suggested algorithms work better than the method used in a real manufacturing system.