An intelligent model for workforce allocation taking into consideration the operator skills

Abstract The evolution of production systems encloses continuous adaptation of workplaces with changing levels of technologies and automation. This research paper examines scenarios of multi-skilled operators, cooperating to accomplish a common goal. The under-consideration environment consists of a distributed network of workstations, each one assigned with a set of pending jobs. Therefore, the production engineer faces the challenging task of job allocation to suitable operators and appropriate workstations. As such, the formulation of the problem is based on the evaluation of each individual operator's job-related skills and the provision of an intelligent decision-making algorithm for the human resources allocation. The framework addresses the optimization of the allocated operators-jobs correlation and the workforce cost as the model's decision criteria. The model was implemented in a cross-platform planning application and tested in a real-life industrial scenario.