Authors
Matthias Walter, Jürgen Zimmermann
Publication date
2016/6/1
Journal
Computers & Operations Research
Volume
70
Pages
163-179
Publisher
Pergamon
Description
Many firms face the challenging task of staffing concurrent projects such that the skill requirements of each project can be satisfied by the respective team of workers. We consider a staffing problem where each worker can be assigned to several projects at a time. A high total number of assignments implies large project teams and scattering of workers across projects. Large teams come along with productivity losses due to increased coordination effort and social loafing while scattering incurs losses due to frequent switching between projects. To curb these inefficiencies, we formulate a mixed-integer linear program that minimizes average project team size and, thus, scattering. The program accounts for multi-skilled workers with heterogeneous skill levels who must also fulfill duties within their departments. We prove that the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense and outline valid inequalities that accelerate the …
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