A two-process implicit enumeration algorithm for the simple assembly line balancing problem

We present an implicit-enumeration algorithm for the simple assembly line balancing problem, with the objective of minimizing the number of stations along the line for a fixed cycle time. The algorithm traverses two branch-and-bound trees, one assigning tasks that appear earlier in the precedence network at lower levels of the tree, the other assigning later tasks at lower levels. The two processes alternately expand nodes of their respective trees, and share information about each other's progress in the form of global bounds. Computational results are reported on several well-known problems from the literature.