Applying a sliding frame approach for solving a new assembly line design problem

This paper presents a new assembly line design model called the Assembly Line Design Problem (ALDP) and illustrates how it can be solved using the sliding frame technique. The ALDP considers many alternatives processes for executing each activity while balancing the line. Therefore, the complexity of the ALDP is very high and requires the sliding frame ability to dissect the line balancing problem to small controllable size sub-problems for which exact techniques can be applied. Thus, the sliding frame neutralizes the complexity of the applied algorithms (and their non-polynomial growth). The paper also briefly discusses the effects of frame size, step size, and the options for activity sequencing.