Line balancing

[The Rivet]

I need to understand line balancing concept. Could someone please help?

[ewilliams]

Here are the basics. Suppose a line has two workstations, A and B. Operations W, X, Y, and Z must be done in order. These operations take 6, 5, 7, and 3 minutes respectively. Assigning W to A and the other 3 to B will unbalance the line -- workstation A will have a 6-minute cycle time and workstation B a 15-minute cycle time. Rearranging the work to do W and X at A, then Y and Z at B, will create cycle times of 11 and 10 minutes at A and B respectively. That is much better line balance.

[EddieK]

Consider a manufacturing line where n operations (such as drilling of holes, smoothing of surfaces, spot welds, etc.) must be performed on each component processed. These n operations are to be performed by m machines, where m << n. In general, the n operations take widely varying amounts of time. In a transfer line, the n operations are assigned to the m machines such that the work assigned to each machine takes about the same amount of time. For example, a particular machine may be assigned the task of drilling several different holes in succession. Achieving such a set of assignments of operations to machines is called “line balancing.”