Analysis and design of self-balancing production line

In a “self-balancing production line”, each worker is assigned work dynamically. In previous research, maximum production rates can be achieved if the workers are arranged in sequence from slowest to fastest [Bartholdi, J. J., & Eisenstein, D. D. (1996). A production line that balances itself, Operations Research, 44(1), 21-34]. However, the conditions are extremely limited, and it is necessary to conduct further research with three or more workers to find the maximum production rate. In this paper, we examine other less restrictive conditions that can achieve the same self-balancing effect, and furthermore, characteristics of this line are analyzed by deriving the imbalance condition and analyzing the influence of initial position. In addition, a method for designing a self-balancing line based on our results is proposed.