The scope of this study is to explore the understanding of Production-line Manufacturing and

Balancing, Types of Line Balancing, Equipment Balancing and its Failure and Analysis. A
production line is said to be in balance when every workers task takes the same amount of time.
Line balancing is a manufacturing-engineering function in which whole collection of productionline tasks are divided into equal portions. Well-balanced lines avoid labour idealness and improve
productivity.

Production Line Balancing

Line-balancing strategy is to make production lines flexible enough to absorb external and internal
irregularities. There are two types of line balancing, which we have explained as
Static Balance Refers to long-term differences in capacity over a period of several hours or
longer. Static imbalance results in underutilization of workstations, machines and people.
Dynamic Balance Refers to short-term differences in capacity, like, over a period of minutes,
hours at most. Dynamic imbalance arises from product mix changes and variations in work time
unrelated to product mix.

Labour Balancing and Assignments

Strategy of production line stability is the tendency for labour assignments to be fixed. Labour
feasibility is an important feature in the strategy of production line flexibility linked to individual skills
and capabilities
When one worker is having problem in performing his assigned task and experiencing delay due
to technical problem(s), other worker(s) should move into help.
The management practice of deliberately pulling workers of the line when the line is running
smoothly.
The movement of whole crews from one dedicated line to another as the model mix changes.
Group Technology In which one worker can handle variety of tasks (automation) in a single
work centre.

Equipment Balancing
While balancing equipment, attempt to ensure that each piece of equipment in the work cell has the
same amount of work. Now days every manufacturer is attempting to maximize the utilization of all
available equipments. Such high utilization is often counterproductive and may be the wrong goal
because; high utilization is usually accompanied by high inventory.

Equipment Failure
An equipment failure is a major serious matter, with the potential to shut down a production line. To
avoid such failures one should not overload the equipments, and workers should be trained to perform a
daily machine checking (preventive maintenance) and following standard operating procedures. The
advantage for Maintenance and Engineering Department does not lye in running late shifts, hence
calculate the preventive maintenance time and schedule the activity.

Analysis
Analysis is generally performed by Competent Technical Staff. Begin the analysis with division of
production-line work into small tasks, determination of task time standards, specification of required
task sequencing and notation of constraints. If bottle neck task is in the way of good balance, the
Competent Technical Staff should analyze the task to reduce the time it takes to perform.

Line Balancing Leadership

Workmen should lead the production line balancing effort, so that they can react quickly when line
imbalances (static and dynamic) crop up as a result of changeover to make a different item or changes
in the output rate.

Conclusion
Production-line balancing study tends to employ thought and ingenuity to change conditions.
Production-line design and operation is more art than science. Labour flexibility is the key to effective
resource management. The idea of workers checking and doing minor repair work on their own
equipment possibly decreases the risk of equipment failure. Selecting an appropriate set of balancing
mechanism is a part of work cell design and it must be linked with many other decisions for the system
to function well.
Rajkumar P. Patil
Production Manager
Om Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
http://www.askaboutgmp.com/1261-production-line-balancing
January 20, 2011

Assembly line balancing can be loosely defined as the process of optimizing an assembly line with
regard to certain factors. Configuring an assembly line is a complicated process, and optimizing that
system is an important part of many manufacturing business models. Maintaining and operating one is
often quite costly, as well. The main focus of balancing is usually to optimize existing or planned
assembly lines to minimize costs and maximize gains.
For instance, a car company might want to alter its assembly line layout in order to speed production.
The company might consider the number of work stations a manufactured item must pass before it is
complete and the time required at each point. Of course, each stage of this process requires a certain
length of time, and the allotted time to finish a process, the number of workers, or the resource demand
may also be considered, based on the specific manufacturing requirements.
The possible results of an assembly line balancing process might be maximized efficiency, minimized
time to finish a process, or minimized number of work stations necessary within a certain time frame.
Each manufacturing process might be quite different from another, so a company balancing unique
workloads must work within the constraints and restrictions affecting its specific assembly line.
To optimize very specific operations, balancing an assembly line might require different methods, some
of which include equations and algorithms concerning specific aspects of the manufacturing process.
Complex manufacturing processes, such as making automobiles in large quantities, can be broken
down into smaller parts, such as individual task times or the resource demands for each machine. This
might be especially helpful in manufacturing processes that require the consideration of many
variables, such as customized vehicles. Assembly line balancing can also guide decision-making based
on the multitude of variables that can affect the manufacturing process.
Many times, this process might be used as support in decision making by offering many different
models and types of data. For instance, the manager of a car manufacturer might analyze his or her
operation based on the concepts of assembly line balancing using many different variables, and then
make a decision based on that analysis. While this might provide the best response to an optimization
effort based on one set of variables, the final decision may rest on multiple mathematical perspectives
of the same problem.