| The production line balancing problem, focused on minimizing the total per-unit cost, allows effective communication with management which facilitates the implementation of required changes. This research was based on the development of three models: an optimization algorithm, a constrained algorithm, and a heuristic method. An experiment was designed and run to compare resulting total costs. Statistical analyses reveal that differences between the optimization algorithm and the constrained algorithm are significantly smaller than the differences between the optimization algorithm and the heuristic method, and the constrained algorithm and the heuristic method. Additional statistical tests indicate that there is no difference in cost between the optimization algorithm and the constrained algorithm. The methodology developed suggests the following steps: the optimization algorithm provides the optimal solution, but is limited by the problem size; the heuristic method provides the constraints for task initiation to the constrained algorithm, is agile in solving any problem size with immediate results; the constrained algorithm provides a solution very close to optimality and solves problems with a larger number of tasks with reasonable time requirements. |
