Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa

This study documents a project to investigate the possibility of achieving savings in BMW South Africa’s Rosslyn assembly plant through the use of metaheuristics to optimise line balancing methods. Through this project, a customised Ant Colony Optimisation algorithm was developed for the optimisatio...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hart, Richard
Format: Others
Language:en
Published: 2018
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10539/26033
id ndltd-netd.ac.za-oai-union.ndltd.org-wits-oai-wiredspace.wits.ac.za-10539-26033
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-netd.ac.za-oai-union.ndltd.org-wits-oai-wiredspace.wits.ac.za-10539-260332019-05-11T03:39:51Z Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa Hart, Richard This study documents a project to investigate the possibility of achieving savings in BMW South Africa’s Rosslyn assembly plant through the use of metaheuristics to optimise line balancing methods. Through this project, a customised Ant Colony Optimisation algorithm was developed for the optimisation of the frontend assembly line in this plant. This algorithm is one which was designed to take into account many of the constraints which are found in an automotive manufacturing environment such as work areas, shared processes and sequence constraints. Through the use of the algorithm, a solution was developed which shows improvements to the line balancing in the area. These improvements show a 17% reduction in labour costs in the area, an improvement of 13.12% in the area’s average work loading and an increase in the average work stability of 17.81%. Additionally, improvements were found which would allow this algorithm to be used in other lines in the assembly plant for further savings and improvements. MT 2018 2018-11-14T08:38:37Z 2018-11-14T08:38:37Z 2017 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/10539/26033 en application/pdf application/pdf
collection NDLTD
language en
format Others
sources NDLTD
description This study documents a project to investigate the possibility of achieving savings in BMW South Africa’s Rosslyn assembly plant through the use of metaheuristics to optimise line balancing methods. Through this project, a customised Ant Colony Optimisation algorithm was developed for the optimisation of the frontend assembly line in this plant. This algorithm is one which was designed to take into account many of the constraints which are found in an automotive manufacturing environment such as work areas, shared processes and sequence constraints. Through the use of the algorithm, a solution was developed which shows improvements to the line balancing in the area. These improvements show a 17% reduction in labour costs in the area, an improvement of 13.12% in the area’s average work loading and an increase in the average work stability of 17.81%. Additionally, improvements were found which would allow this algorithm to be used in other lines in the assembly plant for further savings and improvements. === MT 2018
author Hart, Richard
spellingShingle Hart, Richard
Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa
author_facet Hart, Richard
author_sort Hart, Richard
title Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa
title_short Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa
title_full Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa
title_fullStr Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Line balancing using metaheuristic methods in BMW South Africa
title_sort line balancing using metaheuristic methods in bmw south africa
publishDate 2018
url https://hdl.handle.net/10539/26033
work_keys_str_mv AT hartrichard linebalancingusingmetaheuristicmethodsinbmwsouthafrica
_version_ 1719080786147147776