Sequencing method for products in consideration of different parts prices in a single workstation

A just-in-time production system was founded by Toyota Motor Corporation. A broad definition of JIT is that only the right amount of necessary goods are supplied in the right place at the right time. Keeping the rate of each part used constant (parts usage leveling goal) is the most important goal in assembly scheduling of mixed-model products in JIT production system. Since the goal-chasing method was proposed, a number of papers have dealt with this problem. The purpose of the JIT production system, however, is not only to reduce inventory levels, but also to reduce inventory costs and increase profits. Until now, this subject has not been discussed in any JIT research. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new heuristic method for different part compositions and different parts prices in mixed-model assembly scheduling at a single work-station. It is based on a price-based goal-chasing method to decrease variations in the purchasing cost of parts. The main contribution of this paper is that we do not only consider the quantity of parts, but also the purchase price of the parts. A large number of better results shows the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic method through numerical experiments.