Consideration of workforce differences in assembly line balancing and worker assignment problem
Niloofar Katiraee, Martina Calzavara, Serena Finco, Daria Battini
Abstract
Workforce differences in terms of skill, age, gender and physical measures have a large impact on production systems performance. Moreover, the role of differences between workers can be particularly seen in assembly lines, where a vast range of tasks are performed manually, and workers are involved widely. In this work, we introduce a new assembly line balancing and worker assignment model with consideration of workers’ diversity in terms of both workers’ expertise and perceived physical effort to implement an age-inclusive workforce. Here, a new Worker Task Categorization Matrix is introduced to assure the complete involvement of the individual during the balancing process. Following, a bi-objective linear programming model is proposed and solved by using the ϵ -constraint approach. Finally, we test and validate the model through a real-case application.