Assembly Line Balancing using the Valentine and Aseem Heuristic Algorithm (VAHA)

Abstract

This study delves into the development and application of the Valentine and Aseem Heuristic Algorithm (VAHA) as a different heuristic model to ALB problems. This was achieved by exploiting agglomerative hierarchical clustering principle, and it was proven that assembly lines have lesser idle time than the conventional line balancing methods. The metrics used for comparison were the number of stations, the balance efficiency, the total time the line was idle, and the balance delay of the line. To audit the performance and validate the VAHA model, three conventional line balancing algorithms were used to benchmark the proposed algorithm results and furthermore, the result of the VAHA model, was juxtaposed to the result of another group in the class. Upon evaluation, it shows that by applying VAHA at the barest minimum, a reduction in total idle time at the workstations can be achieved. Moreover, this reduction in total idle time implies that overall labor efficiency has increased.