Assembly-Line Balancing—Dynamic Programming with Precedence Constraints

Abstract

This paper approaches the assembly-line balancing problem as a sequencing problem involving precedence constraints that prohibit the occurrence of certain orderings. This approach permits the formulation of a dynamic programming algorithm for the exact solution of small assembly-line balancing problems. A generalization of this algorithm combined with a successive approximations technique is used for the solution of large problems. In addition, certain combinatorial problems associated with partially ordered sets are formulated and discussed in detail. These problems arise whenever sequencing problems with precedence constraints are treated by dynamic programming techniques.