Authors
Rossana Cavagnini, Mike Hewitt, Francesca Maggioni
Publication date
2020/7/1
Journal
International Journal of Production Economics
Volume
225
Pages
107590
Publisher
Elsevier
Description
In this paper, we consider a product manufacturer that seeks to leverage the potential of human learning to develop the capacity of its workforce and to reduce its costs. Unlike much of the literature in this area, we do not assume that the rate at which individuals learn is known with certainty. We present a two-stage stochastic programming model of the related production planning problem that quantifies the impact of worker assignment decisions to produce through an exponential learning curve which we linearize to yield a mixed integer linear program that can be solved efficiently. With this stochastic program, we perform a rigorously designed computational study and statistical analysis to derive tactics and managerial insights for how an organization should plan its production operations about assignment, cross-training and practicing. Results suggest that explicitly recognizing uncertainty in learning rates would …
Total citations
20212022202320249759
Scholar articles
R Cavagnini, M Hewitt, F Maggioni - International Journal of Production Economics, 2020