Assembly line balancing problem with resource and sequence dependent setup times

Traditional assembly line balancing research has focused on the simple assembly line balancing problem (SALBP), but in recent years studies have paid attention to real life problems. Real-world systems need additional characteristics like equipment selection, cost function, paralleling, mixed-model production and U-shaped line layout etc. One of these additional characteristics is setup times and researchers have focused on this term in order to approximate their problem to real-world problems. Processes such as walking distance, turning and lifting processes, cooling or curing processes, withdrawal times and changing tools which are used between two consecutive tasks exist in real life and cause setup times between tasks. Also, while a setup is performing between two consecutive tasks, a special resource (a special machine or qualified staff) may be needed. Therefore, in this study assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) with resource dependent setup times is analyzed. A mathematical model is presented to solve problem and run for several small sized test problems. For large sized test problems a heuristic approach based on COMSOAL is proposed.