Simultaneous workforce planning and job sequencing

The balance between productivity and flexibility becomes more and more important in today’s competitive industry. Workers play a crucial role for that balance: On the one hand, they have a decisive influence on their own productivity and that of the organization. On the other hand, focusing on worker competencies and skills can maintain or increase flexibility. In particular, workers with a high variety of skills lead to higher flexibility.

The focus of the PhD project is on the optimal workforce planning taking into account the heterogeneity of the workforce. The main focus is on the different skills and competences of the workers. On the one hand, these influence productivity and, on the other hand, decide on the deployment possibilities of the person within the production process. The demand for labor for production within a specified period depends on the number of jobs to be produced. As a result, job assignment to time windows such as shifts may be necessary for optimal workforce scheduling. Since there are interactions between the two decisions, they have to be solved simultaneously. In addition to the optimal solution of the assignment problems by means of mathematical model formulation, the development of heuristic approaches for the consideration of problem dimensions relevant in practice shall be in the focus of the dissertation.