Multi-criteria decision making approach to production line optimization

The problem of optimization assembly lines for rarely repeatable products with low volumes will be addressed in this paper. In this kind of production each product should be treated as a project with different cycle time on each station. Balance of assembly lines processing separate projects is impacted by uncertainty, assembly methods are not fully automated. Daily operations in this kind of activity needed an effective and fast method to support decision making by assembly line managers and production planners. For this purpose Analytical Hierarchy Method (AHP) and TOPSIS methods are used. The empirical study presents four possible optimization configurations for comparison and evaluation using the AHP and TOPSIS methods.