An efficient approach to reduce search space of capacity planning for PWB assembly system: random demand

An algorithm of determining the rough addition set for PWB assembly line capacity expansion problem under random demand is developed. For the single period problem, the algorithm can drop the size of integer decision variables dramatically and even to the extent that the corresponding problem can be directly solved by a standard integer programming code for realistic PWB assembly systems. The described algorithm can further help the heuristic search process or solving the procedure for the multiple-period problem.