Assembly Line Balancing with Inexperienced and Trainer Workers

In this paper, we present a simple assembly line balancing problem for two different sets of workers: trainer workers who are more experienced and likely older, and inexperienced workers who are usually younger and require more time to perform some tasks. Therefore, the main characteristic of this problem is that trainer workers are involved in helping and supporting inexperienced ones in executing some tasks which are more complicated to be carried out. Moreover, task times vary according to the stations where they can be performed due to different sets of equipment we can find in each of them. The problem is modelled as a linear program and solved optimally by applying it to a real-case application. The developed model can be successfully applied in order to help companies to manage a high level of turnover.