Workforce Design with Movement Restrictions Between Workstation Groups

This paper is concerned with the problem of determining the optimal size and composition of a permanent workforce needed to run a facility when demand is specified by a workstation group (WSG) for up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For full–time employees, a solution is characterized by a bid job, which consists of a five–day–a–week schedule, a lunch break for all shifts, and a set of WSG task assignments for each of the half–hour periods in a shift. In contrast, each part–time employee may be given anywhere from one to six shifts during the week, and each shift may vary from four to eight hours in length. To facilitate supervision, all employees must be assigned to a home WSG, but when idle time exists in their schedules, they can be redeployed to other WSGs for a portion of the day.