An Integer Programming Approach to the PCB Grouping Problem

We consider a PCB grouping problem arising from the electronic industry. Given a surface mounting device, several types of PCBs and a number of component feeders used to assemble the PCBs. the optimization problem is the PCB grouping problem while minimizing setup time of component feeders. We formulate the problem as an Integer programming model and propose a column generation approach to solve the Integer programming formulation. In this approach we decompose the original problem Into master problem and column generation subproblem Starting with a few columns in the master problem. we generate new columns successively by solving subproblem optimally. To solve the subproblem. we use a branrh-and-rut approach. Computational experiments show that our solution approach gives high quality solutions in a reasonable computing time.