ALS (Assembly Line Simulator) is a Java based simulator for mixed model assembly lines. ALS is the result of the ALS Research Project (for details see ALS-Homepage), and has been developed with the scope to be usable by researchers and practitioners, for non-commercial use.

The tool, developed in Java, is capable to simulate mixed model assembly lines, with stochastic task times, parallel stations, fixed scheduling sequences, and buffers within workstations. The simulator is a flexible supporting tool in finding solution of the mixed model assembly line balancing problem (and the optimal sequencing and buffer allocation problems associated to it). It is capable to immediately calculate the throughput of a complex line, by simply receiving as inputs three arrays representing: the task times durations, the line configuration (number of workcentres, of buffers within them, of parallel workstations in each workcentre, of tasks assigned to each workcentre), and the sequence of models entering the line. Its fastness and flexibility allow its utilization in those algorithms and procedures where the evaluation of a fitness function (which includes the throughput as performance indicator) has to be performed several times.

Download: The latest version of the code, test data and the documentation can be downloaded from the ALS-Homepage.

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