Chapter 2: Line Balancing

IE 5511 Human Factors

Professor Hayes
 Line Balancing
Goals:
– To meet production goals,
– Maximize output.
Common Approaches to Line Balancing:
1. Estimating the number of operators for a given
number of stations,
2. Work element sharing: grouping “activities” pr
work elements into “stations” or jobs performed
by a single person (some times multiple people
work in concert at a single station or machine)
 Estimating the number of
Operators
To achieve a given rate of production, R,
N operators are needed (total). Standard Minutes
For Each Operation

(1) N = R x Σ AM = R x Σ SM
Number of E
Operators
Needed
Desired Allowed Efficiency
Rate of Production Minutes for (expressed as fraction)
each operation
(e.g. AM = time of slowest operation)
 Estimating the
number of operators
 In a perfectly balanced line, all operations
at all station would take identical time.
 Efficiency would be 100 %
 However, this rarely happens!!
– 100 % efficiency is rarely achievable,
– A more reasonable goal is 95 % efficiency.
(However, even that may not be achievable
depending on the nature of the operations).
 Procedure for Determining
the Number of Operators
needed to meet production goals.
 Assumptions. You have already determined:
– the number of workstations,
– their sequence
– the operations that will be performed at each one.
 Goals. To:
– Meet production goals given to you by your management,
– Balance the workload between stations by putting more
workers at the slower stations,
– Reduce idle time
 Procedure: Estimating the Number of Operators
Givens: Production goal, operation sequence.
 Step 0: (Prior to the analysis) Perform time studies for each
operation using experienced operators in order to obtain standard
times (SM).
 Step 1: Convert the production rate, R, into the same
time units as your standard times.
 Step 2: (optional) Estimate the total number of
operators using Equation (1) (see previous slides)
 Step 3: Estimate the number of operators needed for
each operation,
 Step 4: Identify the slowest operation given the number
of operators computed in previous step,
 Step 5: Test: have you met the production goal?
 Step 6: Adjust. Add more operators, negotiate to
reduce the production goal, or try additional methods.
 Work Element Sharing
 A line can sometimes be balanced with less
cost by rearranging the sub-work elements
(e.g. activities composing a work element)
 For example, by giving activities from the
busiest element to elements with idle time.
 Properties of Work Elements
 What is a work “element”?
 How big should a work element be?

Work Element Assemble items in

box

Load wooden Load

Sub-work elements block Dinosaur

Grasp Move block Orient Release

Sub-sub work elements block to box Block Block
 Work Element Properties
 Work elements can be represented at
various levels of abstraction or detail

 Work elements can almost always be sub-

divided into smaller elements.

 The appropriate representation depends on

the task and situation.
 Work Element Sharing:
GE’s Line Balancing
A Procedure for Assigning
Work Elements to Stations
Given:
– Precedence graph
– Production goal (e.g. 300 units per shift)
– Shift duration (e.g. 450 minutes)
– Number of workstations (e.g. 6 workstations)

Decided how to assign elements to workstations so

as to meet production goals without violating
precedence constraints!
 The Final Assembly Line

A streamlined version:
Station 3
Station 1
(05) (06)
(00) (02)
(08) (07) (09) (10)
(01) (03)
Station 2
Station 4 Station 6
Station 5
(04)