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The impact of multi-skilling on personnel scheduling in the service sector: a retail industry case

Author

Listed:
  • Cesar Augusto Henao

    (Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile)

  • Juan Carlos Munoz

    (Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile)

  • Juan Carlos Ferrer

    (Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile)

Abstract

Using personnel scheduling to reduce overstaffing and understaffing in a service industry across multiple periods is often undermined by lack of flexibility due to the exclusive use of specialized personnel. This study analyses the impacts of assigning multi-skilled personnel to different activities and its potential for improving schedule efficiency. A proposed mixed integer linear programming model determines which employees are trained to work in which activities and their assignments over a one-week planning horizon. The model results show that the lowest total-cost multi-skilled configurations are obtained in scenarios where personnel supply and demand are in equilibrium. Half of employees would continue to be specialized for just one activity while the half slated for multi-skilling would be trained in most cases for just one additional activity, even though training cost is assumed to be minimal. It is also shown that multi-skilling is best applied to employees whose contracts are highly flexible.

Suggested Citation

  • Cesar Augusto Henao & Juan Carlos Munoz & Juan Carlos Ferrer, 2015. "The impact of multi-skilling on personnel scheduling in the service sector: a retail industry case," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 66(12), pages 1949-1959, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:66:y:2015:i:12:p:1949-1959
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Elisabeth Obermair & Andreas Holzapfel & Heinrich Kuhn, 2023. "Operational planning for public holidays in grocery retailing - managing the grocery retail rush," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 931-948, June.
    2. Henao, César Augusto & Ferrer, Juan Carlos & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Vera, Jorge, 2016. "Multiskilling with closed chains in a service industry: A robust optimization approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 166-178.
    3. Douglas S. Altner & Erica K. Mason & Les D. Servi, 2019. "Two-stage stochastic days-off scheduling of multi-skilled analysts with training options," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 111-129, July.
    4. Mou, Shandong & Robb, David J. & DeHoratius, Nicole, 2018. "Retail store operations: Literature review and research directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 399-422.
    5. Emir Hüseyin Özder & Evrencan Özcan & Tamer Eren, 2019. "Staff Task-Based Shift Scheduling Solution with an ANP and Goal Programming Method in a Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-26, February.
    6. Henao, César Augusto & Mercado, Yessica Andrea & González, Virginia I. & Lüer-Villagra, Armin, 2023. "Multiskilled personnel assignment with k-chaining considering the learning-forgetting phenomena," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).

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