Introduction
Overall, the process of workforce scheduling can be defined as the generation or planning of such schedules for a certain number of employees so that the company could satisfy its demands for goods and services in the most productive way. Generally speaking, we can say that the main purpose of scheduling is to tailor such a work schedule, which would reduce to a minimum the number of expenses a company may incur or suffer in connection with the staffing.
Main body
It is also worth mentioning that labor costs have become an extremely important problem, especially in such high-wage countries as instance the United State or Canada. In spite of the fact that there are many models, which are aimed at solving “workforce scheduling” problems, it is of utmost importance to take into account the details of every single situation because there can be a great number of nuances.
Thus, as has already been mentioned before, there is no standard solution, that is why the very formulation of the problem becomes practically decisive. However, there are some basic principles, which have to be taken into account.
It is quite possible to say, that as a rule, workforce scheduling involves two parts: the management and the workers. The main task of a manager is to find that golden mean that will enable the most productive and cost-efficient operation. The problems, which arose in connection with this task, can be of various types and origins. The particular issue we are discussing in this essay is the part-time workers. There can be many reasons for the employment of part-time workers, but in the overwhelming majority of cases, it is due to the fact that a range of products varies considerably from month to month. Thus, the company has to hire new employees, and it faces encounters such problems: temporary workers do not want to commit to long assignments (Donald, pp 156).
On the whole, we can say that the process of personnel scheduling involves the following steps. First of all, it is of crucial importance to determine the total amount of work to be done for a certain period of time and naturally, the range of products should also be taken into account. At times, it is extremely difficult to do it because many organizations are interdependent and they have fluctuating demand pattern. The main problems that such companies may encounter are how to find equilibrium between full-time employees and temporary workers.
As far as staffing requirements are concerned, we can say that the management of the company must take into the range of products and decide what kind of employees the company may need whether it is temporary or part-time workers. It stands to reason that it must be done in accordance with the production schedule. In other words, the companys management must determine what kind of products their company would specialize in within a certain period of time and what kind of workers it would require. (Salvendy, pp 105).
Moreover, the management must determine the availability of the personnel First it is worth mentioning that there are several categories of workers like for instance, full-time employees, regular part-time workers, and casual workers. Naturally, these categories can be easily expanded. Many part-time workers are usually associated with some specific jobs that will be done within a certain period of time. However, the problem is that such employees are usually available on weekends. Moreover, maternity or illness of some full-time workers also makes the company look for an extra hand, which is of course extremely difficult. In such cases, the managers of the company are often inclined to use the so-called incremental analysis, which is considered to be one of the effects of quantitative methods. Overall, we can give the following definition of incremental or differential analysis as some may call it. It is a decision-making method, in which evaluation is determined only by the factors, which are unique or to some extent different among various alternatives. As a rule, it involves the following steps, calculates all costs connected with each alternative, disregards the sunk costs, disregards costs that are steady among the alternatives. The final step is to choose the alternative, which offers the most optimal cost-to-benefit ratio. One may also call this method relevant cost analysis (Goetz, pp 88).
It would be better to illustrate our point with some specific examples. For instance, the company “Davis Instruments” comprises two manufacturing plants, which are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Product demand changes significantly month after month, and it causes the company extreme difficulty in workforce scheduling. Recently Davis began employing temporary workers, which are provided by the company ”Workforce Unlimited”, which specializes in supplying part-time workers for firms in the greater Atlanta area. Workforce Unlimited offered to provide part-time workers under the following contact options that differ depending on the length of employment and the cost.
It should be taken into account that monthly, Davis can employ as many temporary workers as needed under each of the three options. For example, if Davis employs workers in January under option 2, Workforce Unlimited will provide Davis with five part-time workers who will work for two months: January and February. For these workers, Davis will have to pay 5 ($4800) = $24,000. Because of some merger negotiations underway, Davis is not inclined to make any contractual obligations for part-time workers that extend beyond June.
According to Davis’s quality control program, each part-time to obtain training at the time of hire. The training program is required even if the person worked for Davis Instruments in the past. Davis estimates that the cost of training is $ 875 each time a temporary employee is hired. Thus, if a temporary employee is hired for one month, Davis will incur a training cost of $875 but will incur no additional training cost if the employee is on a two-or-three month contract.
Managerial Report
This report is aimed at developing a model that will allow us to ascertain the number of part-time workers that Davis should employ each month under each contract plan in order to meet the projected needs at the best price-quality ratio.
Our first task is to develop a schedule showing the number of temporary workers that Davis should employ monthly for each contract option. It is necessary to present a decision model. The constraints, we are having in this task are the following, first the terms under which Workforce unlimited provides temporary employees. They can be summarized in the following way.
The second constraint is the companys requirements for temporary workers within some period of time. They are summarized in this graphic.
The objective function is to reduce the costs to 313 525 dollars. It should also be taken into account that the number of employees hired must be an integer.
The third condition of this task is the training cost that the company must spend for each employee: it is 875 dollars.
The decision variables in this task are the number of employees the company should hire (X), each separate option (J), under which the employees are hired, and the month. The decision variables can be presented in the following way. (Refer to the solution one; model one in the Excel sheet).
The second part of our task is to present a summary table showing the number of part-time workers that Davis should employ under each contract option, the associated contract cost for each option, and the associated training cost for each option. This task has the same constraints. This table can be presented in the following:
If the training cost for each temporary employee can be reduced to 700 dollars, the solution will change. It should be mentioned that the constraints for this task have the following constraints, they are the number of people needed per month, the options according to which the workers are provided by Workforce Unlimited. The only constraint that is changed is the training costs.
The decision variables can be presented in the following way:
Thus, we may arrive at the conclusion that the total cost will be $302,400 (Refer to the sensitivity report). The minimum reduced gradient is 75 (after 0), so if we cut down the cost by more than $75 for the training the scheduling will change. In this case, the reduction was more than $75 hence the schedule changes.
If we suppose that the employment cost can be cut down by more than $75, the change in the total cost does not only depend on the reduction in training cost but also the reduction in cost from rescheduling. This will define our attempts to cut down on the training cost. A minimum $75 reduction in training costs would be needed to alter the hiring plan based on a training cost of $875 per part-time worker.
4) Supposing that the company employed 10 full-time workers at the beginning of January in order to meet part of the labor requirements over the next six months. If Davis can employ full-time workers for &16.50m per hour, fringe benefits inclusive, what consequences would it have on total labor and training costs over the six-month period as compared to hiring only temporary employees? Provided, that full-time and temporary workers both work approximately 160 hours per month. It is possible to come up with the following solution to the problem this model can be represented in the following way.
Temporary Employees Hired
Full-time employees hired
Thus, we may arrive at the conclusion that with help of this model it is possible to reduce the costs to $289,000. These calculations were made using the Excel Solver.
Bibliography
Billy Earl Goetz. (2002). Quantitative Methods: A Survey and Guide for Managers. McGraw-Hill.
C. Donald J. Waters.(2001) Quantitative Methods for Business. Pearson Education.
Richard D. Palmer, Doc Palmer. (2000). Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook. McGraw-Hill Professional.
Gavriel Salvendy. (2004). Handbook of Industrial Engineering: Technology and Operations Management. McGraw-Hill Professional.
Michael Pinedo. (2003). Planning and Scheduling in Manufacturing and Services.