MEMETIC ALGORITHM: A NEW HEURISTIC TO AID A GENETIC ALGORITHM IN THE OPTIMIZATION OF ASSEMBLY LINE BALANCING PROBLEMS

This study focuses on the application of a procedure based on a Memetic Algorithm with a heuristic to aid Genetic Algorithms in solving Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problems and Time and Space Assembly Balancing Problems. Standard Genetic Algorithms experience difficulties when finding optimal solutions in Time and Space Assembly Balancing Problems, however, the new heuristic presented in this paper creates a Memetic Algorithm to achieve faster convergence and higher-quality solutions. The proposed Memetic Algorithm with the new Compacting Workstation Heuristic has been successfully used to solve Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problems, Time and Space Assembly Balancing Problems, and multiobjective Time and Space Balancing Problems. After an introduction to Assembly Line Balancing Problems, Genetic Algorithms, heuristics and Memetic Algorithms, the methodology to solve these problems is described. Then, examples are presented and the results obtained, the parameters used and the new Compacting Workstation Heuristic are fully described in this study. New optimal solutions for these problems are presented. Finally, conclusions and further investigations are described. Keywords: Genetic algorithms, memetic algorithms, Assembly Line Balancing Problems, TSALBP, heuristic.