Acquiring and operationalizing worker flexibility in dual resource constrained job shops with worker transfer delays and learning losses

Abstract

Although several studies within the dual resource constrained (DRC) job shop literature have investigated issues related to worker flexibility, the costs associated with acquiring and operationalizing this flexibility have been addressed in a limited fashion. This study is aimed at understanding whether cross-training workers in DRC job shops in the presence of worker transfer delays, worker learning effects, and worker attrition improves shop performance. Two worker assignment control rules, and two rules to select the department for the transferring worker, are also tested to understand how workers should be assigned to alternate tasks in different departments. Results from our study indicate that cross-training workers in at least two different departments improves shop performance even when large transfer delays are present. Extensive cross-training is shown to increase the associated costs, especially for the centralized transfer rule. Consequently, the decentralized assignment control policy is recommended since it performs well even in the presence of large transfer delays for the cross-trained workers. Consistent with the prior literature, the rules to select the next department for the transferring worker are shown to have negligible impact on the shop performance. Worker utilization level is shown to be the key underlying variable which explains these performance trends and leads to the associated recommendations.