On Solving the Robust Transfer Line Balancing Problem with Parallel Tasks and Interval Processing Times.

The paper considers a problem of designing a transfer line, in which machines can execute blocks of parallel tasks. It is assumed that some tasks may have uncertain processing times and it is required to find a line configuration to maximize a stability radius, which is a widely used metric for evaluating a robustness of a system. The earlier studies on this problem did not impose any limits on the possible increase of the task processing times, which could lead to solutions that correspond to rather improbable or impossible situations from the practical point of view. In this paper, a more realistic assumption that the processing time may vary within a certain interval is made. A way to calculate the stability radius under this assumption is proposed and a metaheuristic optimization approach is developed. In the experimental study, the solutions under the old and the new settings are compared and discussed.