In this paper we present a new problem involving assembly lines. It arises when successive variations in the cycle time force line re-configuration. We propose four mixed integer programming formulations for the problem, three of them using a time horizon divided in periods. Such assumption gives the problem a dynamic character. The models try to smooth the workload among the stations by forcing it to fall between minimum and maximum values predefined by the user. They were implemented in a commercial package for mathematical programming and some results are reported. Comparisons were made against the repetitive use of classical models (SALBP like) to demonstrate the superiority of this new approach.
assembly line re-configuration; assembly line balancing; mixed integer programming
