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Improvement of Personnel Structures with Simulation
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Problem Statement
An enlargement of the intended manufacturing programme of an airplane parts manufacturing company demands a more effective personnel structures. |
Improvement Approach
The personnel-orientated simulation tool ESPE combines a heuristic search for possible improvements with the dynamical evaluation of the system. Thus, an improved personnel structure is generated algorithmically. |
Benefits
Within a transfer project, with the new personnel structure a better lead time degree, a better system output and a better work load can be attained. |
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Manufacturing systems are faced with continuously changing market conditions. Due to this fact, enterprises are permanently forced to adapt their departmental and personnel structures to the new requirements created by these changing market conditions. In order to fulfil these requirements it is becoming more and more important to take the cost intensive personnel resources into consideration.
The problem of assigning personnel to functions and workplaces is, at least in the case of planning a new workshop, characterized, on one hand, by a large number of possibilities for varying the abilities of employed persons and, on the other hand, by a large number of different possibilities for allocating these persons to functions. In order to exploit the flexibility of human resources and to consider the plurality of possibilities for personnel assignment, effective planning tools can be used to solve such planning problems in a quick and flexible manner.
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In order to solve these problems adequately, the simulation tool ESPE (Engpassorientierte Simulation von Personalstrukturen) of the ifab-Institute can be used. This tool considers the complex, dynamic interactions of personnel resources and machinery equipment and takes advantage of the vast array of opportunities for the planning and controlling of personnel assignments. Dependent upon the type of personnel assignment problem to be planned and controlled, various instruments have been developed, e.g. priority rules to improve the utilization of resources. |
Simulation aided approaches are the most effective way to solve these problems. Typically, the simulation aided planning of personnel assignment is carried out with the usual trial-and-error approach. With this approach, appropriate personnel assignments can only be discovered through incidental changes. In order to provide a systematic approach, the ifab-Institute developed a two-phases-approach with heuristic search strategy which was implemented in the simulation tool ESPE.
Using this approach, the process of finding a solution is divided into two steps. In the first step (initialization phase), the existing personnel structure represents the starting situation for the improvement procedure. In the second step (iteration phase), the modelled personnel structure, e.g. the existing staff, is adapted through simulation by using pre-defined strategies.
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The evaluation of the simulated personnel structure considers e.g. the average lead time, the system output and the average work load as logistical goals, and the calculated personnel cost as well as the personnel adjustment cost as financial goals. In addition to the logistical and financial goals, human-orientated aspects, e.g. personnel preferences for a specific job, can also be taken into account and be evaluated for a possible solution. |
Different case studies have shown that the use of the personnel-orientated simulation is very effective for the given problem. For this reason an example case study is the best way to describe the benefits of the used planning approach.
The simulation model of the chosen case study represents a manufacturing system, which produces parts for various types of airplanes. In the initial situation, the manufacturing programme consists of 500 different parts to be manufactured on 16 machines in variable lot-sizes. The existing personnel structure consists of 14 persons with varying abilities. A special characteristic of the initial situation was a strictly functional division of work between machine operators and manual labourers. Due to an enlargement of the intended manufacturing programme the reorganization of the personnel assignment became necessary. The changed situation required an expansion from 500 to 560 manufacturing parts.
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Without any action the initial personnel structure would lead to an obvious degradation. In particular the system output degree would sink from 97 % to 87 %.
The initial personnel structure was improved by using the described systematic approach in 25 iteration steps. In this case study, a job enlargement was necessary in order to achieve better logistical results. After 12 iterations, the best solution was generated by the improvement procedure. It achieved an 13 % increase in the lead time degree (lead time degree: the higher the better), a system output degree of 91 % instead of 87 % and an increase of the average work load degree of 5 %.
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