A review of cost and profit oriented line design and balancing problems and solution approaches

This review paper presents the state of the art on the problems, approaches and analytical models for assembly and transfer line design and balancing that addresses explicitly cost and profit oriented objectives. The discussions aim to facilitate identifying open problems and research areas that have wide practical applications and that necessitate further investigations. Moreover, they might serve as a foundation for developing decision support systems (DSS) that aid managers in planning and designing profitable or cost efficient assembly and transfer lines.