LINE BALANCING

P.VIDYUT CHANDRA

INTRODUCTION

• Line balancing means balancing production line or an assembly line.

Why Line balancing

• So that there is an even flow of production units from one work station to the next

Why this Problem Raise

This problem is particularly important in plant layouts ..

• The finished product is the result of many sequential operations.

• The production capacity of each machine /workstation in sequence is not identical .

OBJECTIVE OF LINE BALANCING

• To distribute the task evenly over workstations , so that idle time of man and machines is minimized.

FABRICATION UNITS

• Machines operations are difficult to split in to small work elements for re grouping.

• Some operations are inter-related with each other –and have fixed sequence

Example tapping after drilling Machine tools emplyed cannot be used for

variety of jobs ..without expensive changes in setup and tools ..

How to handle the LB problem

• By sub contracting • By diverting extra parts to another machine

not in line.• Having more than one machine at slow work

station. Or changing the speed of machine .• Motivating and improving performance of

worker or assigning job to efficient worker.• Providing a buffer stock of semi finished parts

Methods to improve the Line balancing

• There is no methods which guarantee the optimal solution for a line balancing problem.

1. Kilbridge –weister heuristic( Predecessor number technique)

2. Large candidate rule 3. Heilgeson –Brine (Ranke proportional

methods)

Objective questions

• Work element is a part of total job content.• Work station is combination of few work

elements are performed on part/component.• Station time is the time required to perform

the designated amount of work at a given station.

• Total work content is algebraic sum of all the work elements on the line.

• Cycle Time is time required to complete one job

• Delay or idle time of ith station = cycle time – (work content of ith station / cycle time) - station time.

Or it is difference between the cycle time and station time

• Balance delay is the measure of line efficiency.