PRODUCTION PLANNING &

CONTROL

UNIT – 5
LINE BALANCING
 CONTENTS:
 Line Balancing: Terminology
 Methods of Line Balancing

 RPW method& Largest Candidate method.

 Routing– Definition

 Routing procedure

 Factors affecting routing procedure

 Route Sheet.
 Line Balancing Rules in Mass/ Assembly Line Production:
. In mass production system that is also known as assembly line production,
since the product is standardized and volume of production is very high,
therefore, all man power, equipments and machines need to be arranged in a
definite sequence as per the requirement of the product to be produced. In
mass production, production takes place in a line as shown in the figure
below. The assembly line is a production line where material moves
continuously through a series of workstations where assembly work are
performed.
LINE BALANCING is an analysis process which tries to equally
divide work to be carried out in a production process among workstations.
Advantages of Assembly Line Production:
High rate of output
 Low unit cost
Labor specialization
Low material handling cost
High utilization of labor and equipment
Established routing and scheduling
Routine accounting, purchasing and inventory control

Objectives of Line balancing :

❖ To minimize the cycle time.
❖ To maximize the workload smoothness.
❖ Manage the workloads among assemblers.
❖ To recognize the location of bottleneck.
❖ To decide number of workstation.
❖ To minimize the number of workstations.
❖ To decrease production cost.
❖ Assigning task to each work station in such a way that there is little idle
time.
Line Balancing Problem in Assembly Line Production: Since in
assembly line production, all man power, machines, equipments and
workstations are arranged in a line as per the product process
requirements, it is necessary that this line should be balanced.
 This means that time taken at each work station must be equal and
preferably equal to cycle time, otherwise continuous production may
be hampered. Therefore, there is a pressing need to arrange the
individual processing and assembly tasks at the workstations so that
the total time required at each workstation is approximately the same.
It is almost impossible to reach perfect balance.
 Things to Consider in Line Balancing:

 Sequence of tasks is restricted, there is a required order, called

precedence constraints
 There is a production rate needed, i.e. how many products needed per
time period
 Design the line to meet demand and within constraints
 Terminology and Definitions:
 Minimum Work Element

 Total Work Content

 Workstation Process time

 Cycle Time

 Precedence Constraints

 Balance Delay

Minimum Work Element:

Dividing the job into tasks of a rational and smallest size Example: Drill
a hole, can’t be divided
Symbol Time for element j: Tej
Tej is a constant
Total Work Content:
Aggregate of work elements
Work Station Process Time:
The amount of time for an individual workstation, after individual tasks
have been combined into stations
Sum of task times = sum of workstation times
Cycle Time:
 Time between parts coming off the line.

 Ideally, the production rate, but may need to be adjusted for efficiency
and down time. Established by the bottleneck station, that is station with
largest time
Precedence Constraints:
 Generally given, determined by the required order of operations

 Draw in a network style for understanding

 An element must be complete before the next one is started

Balance Delay:
Measure of line inefficiency due to imbalances in station times
 Line Balancing Methods:
These methods are heuristic approaches, meaning that they are based on
logic and common sense rather than on mathematical proof.
None of the methods guarantees an optimal solution, but they are likely to
result in good solutions which approach the true optimum.
The manual methods to be presented are :
1. Largest-candidate rule

2. Kilbridge and Wester’s method

3. Ranked positional weights method

Line balancing general procedure:

4. Determination of tasks that must be performed to complete one unit of a
product.
5. Determining the order or sequence of performing the whole set of tasks.

6. Drawing precedence diagram. In this flowchart circles represents task and

joining arrows represents precedence.
7. Estimation of task time.
5. Calculation of cycle time. (In Largest-candidate rule consider highest elemental time
as cycle time)
6. Determination of minimum number of workstation required.
7. Assign tasks to workstations for balancing production line.
8. Allocation of elements to the workstations by their ranks
9. Determine the balance efficiency

10. Determine the balance delay

Balance delay = 100 - Balance efficiency

Method- Largest candidate Rule:

List elements in descending order of T
Assign elements to first station, from top to bottom of list, minding constraints, and
not causing sum to exceed cycle time
Continue assigning elements to stations where each station < cycle time, largest
assigned first, until all assigned
1. IFFCO Fertilizer Limited plant manager on the basis of forecast made by sales
department; wants its production line to be designed to make 2,400 spreaders per
week. The plant will operate 40 hours per week.
(Q1.) What should be the line’s cycle time or throughput rate per hour be?
Throughput rate/hr = 2400 / 40 = 60 spreaders/hr
Cycle Time = 1/Throughput rate= 1/60 = 1 minute = 60 secs Assume that in order to
produce the new fertilizer spreader on the assembly line requires doing the
following steps in the order specified:
(Q2.) What is the total number of stations or machines required?
TM (Total machines) = total production time / cycle time
= 244/60 = 4.067 or ≈ 5
(Q3.) Drawing Precedence Diagram:
The figure shows the complete diagram. We begin with work element A, which
has no immediate predecessors. Next, we add elements B and C, for which
element A is the only immediate predecessor. After entering time standards and
arrows showing precedence, we add elements D and E, and so on. The diagram
simplifies interpretation. Work element F, for example, can be done anywhere on
the line after element C is completed. However, element I must await completion
of elements F and G.
 (Q4.) Allocating work or activities to stations or machine
The goal is to cluster the work elements into workstations so that
1. The number of workstations required is minimized
2. The precedence and cycle-time requirements are not violated
3. The work content for each station is equal (or nearly so, but less than) the
cycle time for the line
4. Trial-and-error can be used but commercial software packages are also
available
Solution: The theoretical minimum number of stations (TM) = ∑ t / c
Where, ∑ t = total time required to assemble each unit
The minimum number of workstations is 5 and the cycle time is 60 secs, so figure
below represents an optimal solution to the problem.
Work station 1 includes machine A, station 2 machine C, station 3 machine B & F,
station 4 machine D & G, station 5 machine E,H & I respectively.
(Q 5.) Calculating Line Efficiency:
Now calculate the efficiency measures of a five-station solution: Efficiency = ∑ t /
nc * (100) = 244/ 5 x 60 = 81.3%
Balance delay (%) = 100 – Efficiency = 100% - 81.3% = 18.7%
Idle time = nc – ∑t = 5(60) – 244 = 56 seconds
2. Design line balance for the following data for the cycle time of 10 Min.
 Sketch the precedence diagram and mark the task duration
LINE BALANCING BY RANK POSITIONAL WEIGHTS METHOD
1. Determination of tasks that must be performed to complete one unit of a
product.
2. Determining the order or sequence of performing the whole set of tasks.
3. Drawing precedence diagram. In this flowchart circles represents task
and joining arrows represents precedence.
4. Estimation of total elemental time.
5. Calculation of cycle time.
6. Determination of minimum number of workstation required.
7. Determine the positional weights of all elements.
8. Specify the positional weights of all elements in precedence diagram.
9. Assign the ranks to positional weights of all elements.
10. Allocation of elements to the workstations by their ranks
11. Determine the balance efficiency
12. Determine the balance delay
Balance delay = 100 - Balance efficiency
ROUTING:
 It is a process of deciding the sequence of operations (or route) to be
performed during the production process. It determines:
 What work (operations) will be done on a product.

 Where (on which machine/dept.) these operations will be performed.

 How these operations will be performed.

 In which sequence the job (from raw material stage to finished goods
stage) will move in the plant.
Therefore, the main objective of routing is the selection of best
and cheapest way to perform a job. It depends upon the following
factors:
❖ Type of available machines
❖ Capacity of each machine
❖ Labor required for each machine
❖ Availability of tools and other resources
❖ Efficiency of employees
❖ Types and quantities of the products to be manufactured
❖ Department in which the production is to be carried out

 ADVANTAGES OF ROUTING:
 Effective utilization of available resources.

 Reduction in production costs

 Quality improvement occurs

 Productivity of the system improves

 Provides a basis for loading and Scheduling

PROCEDURE OF ROUTING
 Following steps are needed in routing:

(i) Conduct an analysis of the product to determine the

part/components/sub-assemblies, required to be produced.
(ii) Conduct an analysis to determine the material needed for the product.
(iii) Determine the required manufacturing operations and their
sequence.
(iv) Determine the lot size (i.e., units of items to be manufactured in each
lot of production or order) to be produced (or purchased).
(v) Determine the scrap and rejections at each stage of production.
(vi) Estimate the cost of the product.
(vii) Prepare different forms for production control, such as: production
order form, job-card, labor card, inspection card, tool tickets, route
sheet, move ticket, etc.
 FACTORS AFFECTING ROUTING PROCEDURE:
 Type of Manufacturing Process/Technique Employed:

It is the case of use of line type of layout where the production

process is serialized according to the sequence of operations thus
making routing automatic. Automobile industries adopt this type of
layout. The set up requires change only when new models are
introduced. The same type of routing may be adopted in batch
production also.
 Plant Equipment Characteristics:

Same product can be manufactured in two or more machines

available in plant. I such cases the cheapest one should be selected,
whether small, heavy and automatic or mechanized machine for
routing purpose. To simplify machine data card for each machine
should be filed. Data card contains the characteristics of machine,
special attachments(Jigs and fixtures etc.) and job range. Records of
other facilities like material handling equipment available in shop is
also useful.
 Availability of Plant and Equipment:
Sometimes the services of machines/ processes may not be available
due to machine load conditions, breakdowns or absenteeism of
workers. At such situations routing division may have alternatives
available to avoid discontinuation of manufacturing.

 Difficulties in routing due to Non-availability of Skilled Manpower:

Manpower required in plant may be highly skilled, semi-skilled or
unskilled. On particular machines where high precision work is done,
only services of highly skilled/ experienced workers can be utilized.
 ROUTE SHEETS:
It is a document with specific manufacturing sequence of operations. The
precise route, which must be followed, is given in the route sheet. A typical route
sheet contains the following information:
(a) Number and identification of work order
(b) Symbol and/or identification of a part
(c) Estimated number of pieces to be produced
(d) Number of parts in each lot
(e) Operations needed on the given part
(f) Sequence in which these operations are performed
(g) Machines or equipments to be used for each operation, and
(h) Estimates of set-up and run time per piece of production.
Different route sheets are needed for different parts. These may be used
to determine the schedule for each production order. These serve as useful
guiding document in the production process, as the supervisor knows that after
finishing a particular operation, the part will go to which department and at
what time. In essence, routing is the planning of what works are to be
performed on the job, and in what sequence these would be operational.
 Bill of materials (BOM): A bill of materials (BOM) serves as a
complete list of all the materials and parts—virtually every item—that
a manufacturer needs to create a certain product. To be effective, the
BOM needs to include not only the raw materials but also any
subassemblies, subcomponents, and parts—and the precise quantities
of each.