Workload control of human resources to improve production management

The paper looks at the rapid variation of production workload, the increase of labour cost and critical skills, the new openings provided by industrial law (e.g. reduction of work hours) forcing manufacturing companies to more flexibility and reactivity. The workload control of human resources is an approach to increase workforce flexibility and to respond to these new constraints. This paper proposes an approach to analyse the manufacturing system to raise critical skills, and to work out the skill requirements planning. This approach also allows the operator workload to be assigned and be adjusted according to a set of constraints. A decision support system has been developed using IO scheduling software and ILOG CSP Toolbox. The results of this experimental approach are presented through a case study in an agrifood small and medium-sized enterprise.