Production planning of mixed-model assembly lines: overview and extensions

Mixed-model assembly lines are of great practical relevance and are widely used in a range of industries, such as the final assembly of the automotive and electronics industries. Prior research mainly selected and discussed isolated problems rather than considering the whole planning process. In this article, mixed-model production planning is decomposed into five steps: initial configuration of the line, master scheduling, reconfiguration planning, sequencing, and re-sequencing. This article reviews and discusses all relevant planning steps and proposes general planning instruments as well as formalised decision models for those steps, which have not been thoroughly investigated in the literature thus far.