An exact method for cost-oriented assembly line balancing

After a characterization of the cost-oriented assembly line balancing problem it will be shown that by loading the stations maximally the cost-oriented optimum can be missed. Instead of loading the stations maximally the criterion "two-stations-rule'' has to be used. For generating optimal solutions an exact backtracking method is introduced in which the enumeration process is limited by modified and new bounding rules. Results of an experimental investigation show that the new method finds optimal solutions for small and medium-sized problem instances in acceptable time. (C), 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.