Workforce planning and production scheduling in a reconfigurable manufacturing system facing the COVID-19 pandemic
Résumé
Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the manufacturing sector has been experiencing unprecedented
issues, including severe fluctuation in demand, restrictions on the availability and utilization of the workforce,
and governmental regulations. Adopting conventional manufacturing practices and planning approaches under
such circumstances cannot be effective and may jeopardize workers’ health and satisfaction, as well as the
continuity of businesses. Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) as a new manufacturing paradigm has
demonstrated a promising performance when facing abrupt market or system changes. This paper investigates a
joint workforce planning and production scheduling problem during the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging the
adaptability and flexibility of an RMS. In this regard, workers’ COVID-19 health risk arising from their allocation,
and workers’ preferences for flexible working hours are incorporated into the problem. Accordingly, first, novel
Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) and Constraint Programming (CP) models are developed to formulate
the problem. Next, exploiting the problem’s intrinsic characteristics, two properties of an optimal solution are
identified. By incorporating these properties, the initial MILP and CP models are considerably improved. Af-
terward, to benefit from the strengths of both improved models, a novel hybrid MILP-CP solution approach is
devised. Finally, comprehensive computational experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the
proposed models and extract useful managerial insights on the system flexibility.