Page 285 - DMGT206_PRODUCTION_AND_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Production and Operations Management

Notes Table 14.1: Requirement and Assignment of Workers

Period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Requirements, R i 6 6 8 8 10 10 15 14 12 12 14 14

Assigned, X i 6 - 2 - 2 - 5 - 3 - 4 -
On duty , W i 6 6 8 8 10 10 15 15 12 12 14 14

Using the ‘first-hour’ principle, Xi = 6 workers are assigned in period 1 to work 8 hours. No
additional workers are needed in period 2 because the requirement of 6 workers does not
change.
However, 2 additional workers must be assigned in period 3 to meet the total requirements of
8. In period 8, a total of WI = 15 workers are on duty. The 6 workers who were assigned in period
1 complete their shifts at the end of period 8, leaving a residential of 9 workers who continue
into period 9.

But 12 workers are required in period 9, so 3 additional workers must be assigned to start their
shifts. In period 11, the requirement for workers goes up to 14, but 2 workers have completed
their 8-hour shift, so 4 new workers are assigned.
The assignment procedure continues in the same way, in an endless chain, as new requirements
become known.

14.1.9 Scheduling Rules for the Workforce-Cyclic Personnel Schedules

One way to manage capacity in a scheduling system, with a stable situation in which the
requirements pattern repeats itself, is to specify labour-assignment rules. The following are
some examples of labour-assignment rules.
 Assign personnel to the workstation having the job that has been in the system longest.
 Assign personnel to the workstation having the most jobs waiting for processing.

 Assign personnel to the workstation having the largest standard work content.
 Assign personnel to the workstation having the job that has the earliest due date.
Determining the workdays for each employee does not make the staffing plan operational.
Daily workforce requirements, stated in aggregate terms in the staffing plan, must also be
satisfied. In addition, customers demand quick response and reality is that total demand cannot
be forecast with reasonable accuracy. The capacity needs adjustment to meet the expected loads.
Therefore, the workforce capacity available each day must meet the daily workforce requirements.
If it does not and no such schedule can be found, management might have to change the staffing
plan and authorize more employees, overtime hours, or larger backlogs.

Optimal solutions to cyclic staffing problems can be developed by applying the first-hour
principle successively to the requirements schedule until the assignment pattern repeats. Suppose
that we are interested in developing an employee schedule for a company that operates seven
days a week and provides each employee one day off.
The objective is to identify the days off for each employee that will minimize the amount of total
slack capacity. The work schedule for each employee, then, is the six days that remain after one
day off has been determined. The procedure involves the following steps.

280 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY