A survey on Benders decomposition methods applied to assembly line balancing problems

This survey presents a comprehensive review on the application of classical and logic-based Benders decomposition (BD) approaches to Assembly Line Balancing Problems (ALBP). The core decisions in assembly lines involve assigning a partially ordered set of tasks to (work)stations to maximise productivity or minimise resource usage in flow-oriented systems. ALBPs may contain stochastic data, multiple workers per station, or depend on the production sequence. Hence, they require further scheduling decisions - various stochastic and sequence-dependent problems have successfully applied this approach. This paper contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing a literature review. It introduces each article’s particular aspects and ideas and brings forth a summary and discussions on existing gaps. We offer insights into the BD method’s efficiency for combinatorial problems such as ALBPs from a managerial perspective, suggest potential directions for future research, and highlight the increasing number of contributions using this technique.