An Ant Colony Algorithm for Assembly Line Balancing Problems with Relaxable Constraints

In this paper, we consider the problem of balancing the assembly line, which is a flow-oriented production system suitable for mass production products such as home appliances and automobiles, etc. Since large capital investments are required for the installation of an assembly line, we should investigate various design alternatives as possible. In order to reduce the efforts of the line design engineers, this study presents a metaheuristic based on the ant colony algorithm for examining the effects when the constraints of task time and precedence are released. Experimental tests showed that the proposed algorithm obtained the solution very close to the optimal solution.