Line Balancing: Designing

the Layout
Line balancing, quantitative methods of
site selection

Design Product Layouts:

Line Balancing
Line Balancing is the process of
assigning
tasks to workstations in such a way
that the workstations have
approximately
equal time requirements.

Terminology
Task
Task

Precedence
Task Times
Cycle Time
Productive Time Per hour
Workstation
Work Centre
No of Workstation Working
Minimum No of Workstations

Cycle Time

Cycle time is the maximum time

allowed at each workstation to
complete its set of tasks on a unit.

Terminology

Precedence Diagram

Precedence diagram: Tool used in line balancing

to display elemental tasks and sequence
requirements
0.1 min.

1.0 min.

b
c

0.7 min.

d
0.5
min.

A Simple
Precedence
Diagram

e
0.2 min.

Station 1

Station 2 Station 3

e
f

Station 4

Bottleneck Workstation

1 min.

30/hr.

1 min.

30/hr.

Bottleneck

2 min.

30/hr.

1 min.

30/hr.

Parallel Workstations

30/hr.
1 min.

60/hr.

2 min.

30/hr.

1 min.

1 min.
30/hr.
2 min.

Parallel Workstations

30/hr.

60/hr.

Line Balancing Procedure

1.

Determine which tasks must be performed to

complete one unit of a particular product
2. Determine the order or sequence in which the
tasks must be performed.
3. Draw a precedence diagram. This is a flow chart
where circles represent tasks and connecting
arrows represent precedence.
4. Estimate task times.
5. Calculate the cycle time
6. Calculate the minimum number of work stations.
7. Use one of the heuristics to assign tasks to work
stations so that the production line is balanced.
- Incremental Utilization Heuristic
- Longest time task heuristic

Flow
Begin

with the workstation by

assigning unassigned task
- Check weather utilization is
100%
If No, Continue Adding Task to
the workstation as per the
precedence diagram to this
workstation
- Check weather utilization is
100%

Task

Task Discription

Precee Task
ding
Time
Task

Place circuit frame on a jig

--------

0.18

Place circuit #1 into frame

0.12

Place Circuit #2 into frame

0.32

Place Circuit #3 into frame

0.45

Attach circuits to frame

B,C,D

0.51

Solder circuit connections to central

circuit control

0.55

Place circuit assembly in calculator

0.38

Place and attach keyboard to inner frame

0.42

Place and attach display

0.30

Place and attach keyboard

0.18

Place and attach top body of calculator

0.36

Place and attach power Assembly

0.42

Place and attach bottom body of

calculator

K,L

0.48

N
Test circuit integrity
M
0.30
Productive Time= 54 min/hr, production required: 540 calculators/hr

Solution
Compute the cycle time=
54 minutes/hr 540
calculators/hr
b) Compute the minimum no of
workstations:
Sum of task times/cycle time=
5.36/0.1= 53.60 workstations
c) Draw precedence diagram
a)

W.C.
(1)

Task
(2)

Minutes
(3)

No. of
W.S.
[(3)/Cycle
time]
(4)

Actual
no. of
W.S.
(5)

Utilizatio
n of W.S.
[4/5*100

W.C.
(1)

Task
(2)

Minutes
(3)

No. of
W.S.
[(3)/Cycle
time]
(4)

Actual
no. of
W.S.
(5)

Utilizatio
n of W.S.
[4/5*100

A
A,B

.18
1.8
.
3.0
18+.12=.3
0

2
3

90%
100%

.32

3.2

80%

C,D

.
7.7
32+.45=.7
7

96.3%

C,D,E

.
12.8
32+.45+.5
1

13

98.5%

C,D,E,F

.
18.3
32+.45+.5
1+.55

19

96.3%

.55

5.5

91.7%

F,G

9.3

10

93%

Tasks in
work
Centres

A,B

C,D,E

F,G,H,I

J,K,L,M,N,
O

Work
Centre

Efficiency of your Proposal:

Utilization= Min. No of Workstation/Actual No of Workstation
=53.6/55=0.975 or 97.5%

Task

Immediate
Predecessor

Task Time
(Minutes)

------------------------

0.9

0.4

0.6

0.2

0.3

D,E

0.4

0.7

1.1

4.6

Total

A) Draw a Precedence Diagram

B) Assuming that 55 minutes per hour are productive, compute the cycle
needed to obtain 50 units per hour
C) Determine the Minimum No of workstation
D) Assign Tasks to workstation using the Longest Task Time Heuristic
E) Calculate the Utilization of the solution in part D

A) Precedence Diagram
D

Cycle Time, Minimum No of Work

Station
Cycle time= productive time per
hour/ demand per hour
= 55/50= 1.1 minutes/product
Min. No. of Workstation= Sum of
all Task Times/Cycle Time
= 4.6/1.1
= 4.2 workstations

Assigning task to outstations

using longest task time heuristic
WS

List

Task

Task
Time

Sum of
TT

Unassig
ned TT
at WS
[1.1(5)]

0.9

0.2

0.2

0.4

0.7

0.7

1.0

0.1

0.1

D,E

0.3

0.3

0.8

0.2

0.5

0.6

0.4

0.9

0.2

0.7

0.7

0.4

1.1

1.1

Summarize the assignment of

tasks to workstation
Task in Workstations

Workstation

B,C

E,D,F

Utilization= minimum no of workstation/actual no. of workstation

=4.2/5=0.84= 84%

It

The Analytic Hierarchy Process

(AHP)

is popular and widely used method

for multi-criteria decision making.
Allows the use of qualitative, as well
as quantitative criteria in evaluation.
Founded by Saaty in 1980.
Wide range of applications exists:
Selecting a car for purchasing
Deciding upon a place to visit for
vacation
Deciding upon an MBA program after
graduation.

22

Hierarchy tree
S e le c t in g
a N ew C ar
S t y le

Civic

R e lia b ilit y

Dezire

BMW

FuelE conom y

Honda City

Alternative courses of action

23

Scale for pairwise comparisons

equally important
(1)
weakly more important (3)
strongly more important
(5)
very strongly more important (7)
extremely more important (9)

24

Hierarchy for the Manufacturer Selection

Problem

Overall Goal
Criteria
Decision
Alternatives

Select the Best Site Location

R.M Cost

Labor Cost

Govt. Policy

Nasik

Mumbai

Pune

Steps
Develop

Pairwise Comparison
Matrix for each Criteria
Develop Normalized Matrix
Calculation of Priority Vector
Develop Criteria Preference
Matrix
Ranking The Criteria (By
Influence Pairwise comparison)
Develop Overall Ranking

Pairwise Comparison Matrix

(Raw Material Cost)
Nasik

Mum

Nasik

1/5

Mumbai

1/3

1/9

Pune

Pune

27

Pairwise Comparison Matrix

(Labor Cost and Govt Policy)
Nasik
Nasik
Mumbai
Pune

Mum

1/3

1/6

1/9

Nasik

Mum

Nasik

1/3

Mumbai

Pune

1/7

Pune

Pune

28

Normalize Matrix
By dividing Each Column by its
corresponding Column Sum
Nasik

Mum

Nasik

1/5

Mumbai

1/3

1/9

Pune
SUM

Pune

Priority vector Raw Material

Cost)
Nasik

Mum

Pune

Row Average

Nasik

0.5455

0.3333

0.6250

0.5012

Mumbai

0.1818

0.1111

0.0625

0.1185

Pune 0.2727

0.5556

0.3125

0.3803

Criteria Preference Matrix

LC

GP

RM

Nasik

0.2819

0.1790

0.5012

Mumbai

0.0598

0.6850

0.1185

Pune 0.6583

0.1360

0.3803

Ranking The Criteria

RM
RM

LC

1/5

LC

GP

1/3

1/9

GP

32

Normalization and Priority Vector

Nasik

Mum

Row Average

Pune

Nasik

0.1519

0.1375

0.2222

0.1993

Mumbai

0.7595

0.6878

0.6667

0.6535

Pune 0.0506

0.0764

0.0741

0.0612

Scores
Site A Score= 0.1993 (0.5012)+
0.6535 (0.2819)+ 0.0860
(0.1790)= 0.2322
Calculate Site B and Site C score
Site with Maximum Score would be
selected