45 A Novel Approach to Assembly Line Balancing Problem Using a Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm

The Assembly Line Balancing (ALB) problem is a well-known manufacturing optimization problem, which determines the assignment of various tasks to an ordered sequence of stations. As Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have established themselves as a useful optimization technique in the manufacturing field, the application of GAs to ALB problem has expanded a lot. This paper describes a Generalized Pareto-based Scale-independent Fitness Function Genetic Algorithm (gp-siffGA) for solving ALB problem with Worker Allocation (ALB-wa) to minimize the cycle time, the variation of workload and the total cost under the constraint of precedence relationships at the same time. The results indicated that the proposed approach improved the quality of solutions more than the other existing GA approaches.