The joint line balancing and material supply problem

In production systems of automobile manufacturers multi-variant products are assembled on paced mixed-model assembly lines, which have to be supplied by a lean in-house logistic with containers of different sizes, alternative supply policies and different number of parts. The assignment of operations to workplaces within the assembly line balancing problem and the assignment of containers to supply policies within the material supply problem determine the operational cost of a work system. Up to now in the literature and real-world both problems are solved successively.