An efficient single-pass heuristic method capable of finding good solutions for the single-model deterministic line balancing problem is presented. The method involves four phases for simplifying a given problem, reducing its size and decomposing it into smaller subproblems when appropriate. The solution is then found by using combinations of various heuristic rules. The procedure is illustrated on the 70-task problem of Tonge (1960)and computational results on well-known test problems are reported.