Chapter 6

Process Design
and Facility Layout
Assembly-Line Balancing

Process of assigning tasks to workstations

so that the workstations have
approximately equal time requirements.

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Cycle Time

Cycle time is the maximum time

allowed at each workstation to
complete its set of tasks on a unit.
• Also called takt time

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Line Balancing Formulas
OT OT
Output capacity  CT 
CT D
OT  operating time per day D  desired output per day
CT  cycle time

N min 
 t
CT
N min  Theoretica l minimum number of work stations
 t  sum of the task time s

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Precedence Network
Precedence Network: Diagram of activities and their
sequential relationships, using nodes and arrows.

0.1 min. 1.0 min.

A Simple Precedence
a b Diagram

c d e
0.7 min. 0.5 min. 0.2 min.

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Line Balancing Procedure

Table 6-4
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Example 1: Assembly Line Balancing
 Arrange tasks into three workstations.
• Use a cycle time of 1.0 minute
• Assign tasks in order of the most number of
followers
0.1 min. 1.0 min.
a b

c d e
0.7 min. 0.5 min. 0.2 min.
Example 6-6
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Line Balancing Rules
Some Heuristic (intuitive) Rules:
 Assign the task with longest time.
 Assign the task with the most followers.
 Assign the task with the largest positional weight (the
sum of the task’s time plus the time of all the following tasks).

Percentage of idle time 

 Idle time per unit
100
N actual  Cycle time
Efficiency  100 - Percentage of idle time

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 Example 1 Solution
% of idle time 
 Idle time
 100 
0.5
 100  16.7%
N actual  Cycle time 3  1.0
efficiency  100%  16.7%  83.3%

WS 1 WS 2

0.1 min. 1.0 min.

a b
WS 3

c d e
0.7 min. 0.5 min. 0.2 min.
Example 6-6
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Example 2
 Arrange tasks into four workstations
• Use a cycle time of 1.0 minute
• Assign tasks in order of the most number of
followers (then longest time)

0.2 0.1 0.3

a b e

0.8 0.6
c d f g h
1.0 0.4 0.3
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Solution to Example 2

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3 Station 4

a b e
f g h
c d

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