A MILP model for an integrated project scheduling and multi-skilled workforce allocation with flexible working hours
Accepted for oral presentation in 20th IFAC World Congress, (IFAC WC 2017), Toulouse, France. • 2017
Publication Information
Authors
Ahmed Karam, El-Awady Attia, and Philippe Duquenne
Keywords
Workforce flexibility, multi-skilled workers, working time flexibility, scheduling, mixed integer linear programming
Journal
Accepted for oral presentation in 20th IFAC World Congress, (IFAC WC 2017), Toulouse, France.
Publisher
Not Available
Volume
Not Available
Issue
Not Available
Pages
Not Available
publication.type
International
Paper Link
Not Available
Supplementary Materials
Not Available
Abstract
In this paper, we integrate two decision problems arising in various applications such as production planning and project management: the project scheduling problem, which consists in scheduling a set of precedence-constrained tasks, where each task requires executing a set of skills to be performed, and the workforce allocation problem which includes assigning workers as scarce resources to the skills of each task. These two problems are interrelated as the tasks durations are not predefined, but depend on the number of workers assigned to that task as well as their skill levels. We here present a mixed integer linear programming model that considers important real life aspects related to the flexibility in the use of human resources, such as multi-skilled workers whose skill levels are different and measured by their efficiencies. Hence, execution times of the same workload by different workers vary according to these efficiencies. Moreover, the model considers the flexible working time of employees; i.e. the daily and weekly workload of a given worker may vary from one period to another according to the work required. Furthermore, efficient team building is incorporated in this model; i.e. assigning an expert worker and one or more apprentice worker(s) together with the purpose of skill development thanks to knowledge transfer. A numerical example is provided to check the performance of the model.
Staff Members - Benha University