Production line modeling and balancing: comparison of existing techniques and proposal of a new methodology

In industrial plants, the heads of production often allocate tasks to operators without following a real methodology, but basing on experience; therefore, there are many problems when a quickly changes of capacity or constraints occur. In the literature, there are not techniques able to provide unique and effective solutions. The starting point of this study is to explore the main methods of production line balancing, understanding their advantages and disadvantages in assigning tasks to workers with the same amount of time. Well-balanced lines allow to improve productivity and to make production lines enough flexible to absorb external and internal irregularities. The result is a better utilization of workstations, machines and people. The main aim of the present work is to propose a new technique of balancing, in particular for assembly lines, simple, general and effective.