Integrating workers’ differences into workforce planning

Othman, Mohammed; Bhuiyan, Nadia; Gouw, Gerard J.

doi:10.1016/j.cie.2012.06.015

Cited by 54 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The most frequently considered criterion is to minimize the line takt time, see Miralles et al (2008), Blum and Miralles (2011), Moreira and Costa (2013) and Mutlu et al (2013). Most of the publications on workforce assignment or workforce planning assume that workers have different skills, which influence task processing times and hence the line productivity; see, for example, Nakade and Ohno (1999), Miralles et al (2007), Niemi (2009), Araújo et al (2012), Othman et al (2012), Fowler et al (2008) and Costa and Miralles (2009).…”

Section: Overall Statement Of the Problem And Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Workforce minimization for a mixed-model assembly line in the automotive industry

Battaïa

Delorme

Dolgui

et al. 2015

International Journal of Production Economics

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International audienceA paced assembly line consisting of several workstations is considered. This line is intended to assemble products of different types. The sequence of products is given. The sequence of technological tasks is common for all types of products. The assignment of tasks to the stations and task sequence on each station are known and cannot be modified, and they do not depend on the product type. Tasks assigned to the same station are performed sequentially. The processing time of a task depends on the number of workers performing this task. Workers are identical and versatile. If a worker is assigned to a task, he/she works on this task from its start till completion. Workers can switch between the stations at the end of each task and the time needed by any worker to move from one station to another one can be neglected. At the line design stage, it is necessary to know how many workers are necessary for the line. To know the response to this question we will consider each possible takt and assign workers to tasks so that the total number of workers is minimized, provided that a given takt time is satisfied. The maximum of minimal numbers of workers for all takts will be considered as the necessary number of workers for the line. Thus, the problem is to assign workers to tasks for a takt. We prove that this problem is NP-hard in the strong sense, we develop an integer linear programming formulation to solve it, and propose conventional and randomized heuristics

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Section: Overall Statement Of the Problem And Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Workforce minimization for a mixed-model assembly line in the automotive industry

Battaïa

Delorme

Dolgui

et al. 2015

International Journal of Production Economics

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“…Süer and Tummaluri (2008) studied manpower assignment issues in labor intensive cells, like: skills, learning and forgetting. Othman et al (2012) developed a workforce planning model with some human issues such as training, skills, and workers' personalities and motivation. They introduced a multi-objective non-linear mathematical model towards minimizing the training, hiring, firing, and overtime costs and minimizing the number of fired most productive workers.…”

Section: Insert Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

New criteria for configuration of cellular manufacturing considering product mix variation

Bootaki

Mahdavi

Paydar

2016

Computers & Industrial Engineering

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“…Hiring new employees who hold the exact required skills brings immediate benefits to the company, although the cost associated with the new hiring can be expensive (Bidwell, 2011). Alternatively, cross-training current employees or initial-training new employees to obtain required skills may cost a company less money because the fixed costs associated with these decisions are often lower than the hiring cost of recruiting new and appropriately skilled employees (Park et al, 2011;Othman et al, 2012). However, training takes time and an employee in training cannot provide services to customers.We develop mathematical models to support three resource planning and allocation decision approacheshierarchical, joint, and integratedin technology-oriented and knowledge-intensive service environments where service demand must be satisfied in the same period.…”

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confidence: 99%

Decision Models for Workforce and Technology Planning in Services

Jiang³

et al. 2015

Service Science

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Today's service companies operate in a technology-oriented and knowledge-intensive environment while recruiting and training individuals from an increasingly diverse population. One of the resulting challenges is ensuring strategic alignment between their two key resourcestechnology and workforcethrough the resource planning and allocation processes. The traditional hierarchical decision approach to resource planning and allocation considers only technology planning as a strategic-level decision, with workforce recruiting and training planning as a subsequent tactical-level decision. However, two other decision approachesjoint and integrated -elevate workforce planning to the same strategic level as technology planning. Thus, we investigate the impact of strategically aligning technology and workforce decisions through the comparison of joint and integrated models to each other and to a baseline hierarchical model in terms of total cost. Numerical experiments are conducted to characterize key features of solutions provided by these approaches under conditions typically found in this type of service company. Our results show that the integrated model is lowest cost across all conditions. This is because the integrated approach maintains a small but skilled workforce that can operate new and more advanced technology with higher capacity. However, the cost performance of the joint model is very close to the integrated model under a number of conditions and is easier to implement computationally and managerially, making it a good choice in many environments. Managerial insights derived from this study can serve as a valuable guide for choosing the proper decision approach for technology-oriented and knowledge-intensive service companies. capacity, this advantage is offset by the fact that the technology is often more expensive and requires specially trained employees to operate it. Conversely, older technology is often cheaper but less efficient.Determining the right types and quantities of technology to purchase, as well as the right time to purchase, are critical decisions for a company in securing the capacity sufficient to meet demand at all times.Meanwhile, different types of technology require different skill sets; only employees equipped with the appropriate skill set can operate a particular technology. Therefore, service companies must make workforce decisions to hire and/or train employees for the desired skill sets.A company builds a portfolio of the employee skill sets in three different ways: by hiring new employees with the required skills; by training current employees; or by hiring and training, which is to first hire new and unskilled employees and then train them to the desired skills. To distinguish the latter two, we call the training of current employees as cross-training, and the training of new and unskilled employees as initial-training. Hiring new employees who hold the exact required skills brings immediate benefits to the company, although the cost associated with the new hiring can be expe...

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Integrating workers’ differences into workforce planning

Cited by 54 publications

References 45 publications

Workforce minimization for a mixed-model assembly line in the automotive industry

Workforce minimization for a mixed-model assembly line in the automotive industry

New criteria for configuration of cellular manufacturing considering product mix variation

Decision Models for Workforce and Technology Planning in Services

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