IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/mathme/v62y2005i3p499-514.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Staffing decisions for heterogeneous workers with turnover

Author

Listed:
  • Hyun-Soo Ahn
  • Rhonda Righter
  • J. Shanthikumar

Abstract

In this paper we consider a firm that employs heterogeneous workers to meet demand for its product or service. Workers differ in their skills, speed, and/or quality, and they randomly leave, or turn over. Each period the firm must decide how many workers of each type to hire or fire in order to meet randomly changing demand forecasts at minimal expense. When the number of workers of each type can by continuously varied, the operational cost is jointly convex in the number of workers of each type, hiring and firing costs are linear, and a random fraction of workers of each type leave in each period, the optimal policy has a simple hire- up-to/fire-down-to structure. However, under the more realistic assumption that the number of workers of each type is discrete, the optimal policy is much more difficult to characterize, and depends on the particular notion of discrete convexity used for the cost function. We explore several different notions of discrete convexity and their impact on structural results for the optimal policy. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Hyun-Soo Ahn & Rhonda Righter & J. Shanthikumar, 2005. "Staffing decisions for heterogeneous workers with turnover," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 62(3), pages 499-514, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:mathme:v:62:y:2005:i:3:p:499-514
    DOI: 10.1007/s00186-005-0033-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00186-005-0033-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00186-005-0033-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pinker, Edieal J. & Larson, Richard C., 2003. "Optimizing the use of contingent labor when demand is uncertain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 39-55, January.
    2. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    3. Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2002. "Queueing Models of Call Centers: An Introduction," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 41-59, July.
    4. Bruce Hajek, 1985. "Extremal Splittings of Point Processes," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 543-556, November.
    5. Dixit, Avinash, 1997. "Investment and Employment Dynamics in the Short Run and the Long Run," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Noah Gans & Yong-Pin Zhou, 2002. "Managing Learning and Turnover in Employee Staffing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(6), pages 991-1006, December.
    7. Bordoloi, Sanjeev K. & Matsuo, Hirofumi, 2001. "Human resource planning in knowledge-intensive operations: A model for learning with stochastic turnover," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 169-189, April.
    8. Edieal J. Pinker & Robert A. Shumsky, 2000. "The Efficiency-Quality Trade-Off of Cross-Trained Workers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 32-48, July.
    9. Harrison, J. Michael & Van Mieghem, Jan A., 1999. "Multi-resource investment strategies: Operational hedging under demand uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 17-29, February.
    10. Serguei Netessine & Gregory Dobson & Robert A. Shumsky, 2002. "Flexible Service Capacity: Optimal Investment and the Impact of Demand Correlation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 375-388, April.
    11. Jan A. Van Mieghem, 1998. "Investment Strategies for Flexible Resources," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(8), pages 1071-1078, August.
    12. Charles H. Fine & Robert M. Freund, 1990. "Optimal Investment in Product-Flexible Manufacturing Capacity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(4), pages 449-466, April.
    13. Eberly, Janice C. & Van Mieghem, Jan A., 1997. "Multi-factor Dynamic Investment under Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 345-387, August.
    14. Jan A. Van Mieghem & Nils Rudi, 2002. "Newsvendor Networks: Inventory Management and Capacity Investment with Discretionary Activities," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 313-335, August.
    15. Berman, Oded & Larson, Richard C., 1994. "Determining optimal pool size of a temporary call-in work force," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 55-64, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. N. Llort & A. Lusa & C. Martínez-Costa & M. Mateo, 2019. "A decision support system and a mathematical model for strategic workforce planning in consultancies," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 497-523, June.
    2. Özlük, Özgür & Elimam, Abdelghani A. & Interaminense, Eduardo, 2010. "Optimum service capacity and demand management with price incentives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 204(2), pages 316-327, July.
    3. Fernandes, Rui & Gouveia, Borges & Pinho, Carlos, 2013. "A real options approach to labour shifts planning under different service level targets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 182-189.
    4. Mincsovics, Gergely & Tan, Tarkan & Alp, Osman, 2009. "Integrated capacity and inventory management with capacity acquisition lead times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 949-958, August.
    5. Andreas Drexl & Martin Mundschenk, 2008. "Long-term staffing based on qualification profiles," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 68(1), pages 21-47, August.
    6. de la Torre, R. & Lusa, A. & Mateo, M., 2016. "A MILP model for the long term academic staff size and composition planning in public universities," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-11.
    7. Keumseok Kang & J. George Shanthikumar & Kemal Altinkemer, 2016. "Postponable Acceptance and Assignment: A Stochastic Dynamic Programming Approach," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 493-508, October.
    8. Song, Haiqing & Huang, Huei-Chuen, 2008. "A successive convex approximation method for multistage workforce capacity planning problem with turnover," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 188(1), pages 29-48, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2003. "Commissioned Paper: Capacity Management, Investment, and Hedging: Review and Recent Developments," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(4), pages 269-302, July.
    2. Ebru K. Bish & Qiong Wang, 2004. "Optimal Investment Strategies for Flexible Resources, Considering Pricing and Correlated Demands," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 954-964, December.
    3. J. Prince Vijai, 2021. "Production network, technology choice, capacity investment and inventory sourcing decisions: operational hedging under demand uncertainty," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 58(4), pages 1164-1191, December.
    4. Achal Bassamboo & Ramandeep S. Randhawa & Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2010. "Optimal Flexibility Configurations in Newsvendor Networks: Going Beyond Chaining and Pairing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(8), pages 1285-1303, August.
    5. Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2007. "Risk Mitigation in Newsvendor Networks: Resource Diversification, Flexibility, Sharing, and Hedging," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(8), pages 1269-1288, August.
    6. Bish, Ebru K. & Hong, Seong J., 2006. "Coordinating the resource investment decision for a two-market, price-setting firm," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 63-88, May.
    7. Jan A. Van Mieghem & Nils Rudi, 2002. "Newsvendor Networks: Inventory Management and Capacity Investment with Discretionary Activities," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 313-335, August.
    8. Francas, David & Löhndorf, Nils & Minner, Stefan, 2011. "Machine and labor flexibility in manufacturing networks," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 165-174, May.
    9. Transchel, Sandra, 2017. "Inventory management under price-based and stockout-based substitution," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(3), pages 996-1008.
    10. Robert A. Shumsky & Fuqiang Zhang, 2009. "Dynamic Capacity Management with Substitution," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 671-684, June.
    11. Julka, Nirupam & Baines, Tim & Tjahjono, Benny & Lendermann, Peter & Vitanov, Val, 2007. "A review of multi-factor capacity expansion models for manufacturing plants: Searching for a holistic decision aid," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 607-621, April.
    12. Fernando Bernstein & Gregory A. DeCroix & Yulan Wang, 2007. "Incentives and Commonality in a Decentralized Multiproduct Assembly System," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(4), pages 630-646, August.
    13. Dipankar Bose & A. K. Chatterjee & Samir Barman, 2016. "Towards dominant flexibility configurations in strategic capacity planning under demand uncertainty," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 53(3), pages 604-619, September.
    14. Li, Hongyan & Meissner, Joern, 2011. "Competition under capacitated dynamic lot-sizing with capacity acquisition," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(2), pages 535-544, June.
    15. Serguei Netessine & Gregory Dobson & Robert A. Shumsky, 2002. "Flexible Service Capacity: Optimal Investment and the Impact of Demand Correlation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 375-388, April.
    16. Li, X. & Zuidwijk, R.A. & de Koster, M.B.M. & Dekker, R., 2016. "Competitive Capacity Investment under Uncertainty," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2016-005-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    17. Su, Ping & Tian, Zhongjun & Wang, Haiyan, 2012. "On service degrade at a discount: Capacity, demand pooling, and optimal discounting," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 358-367.
    18. Yueshan Yu & Xin Chen & Fuqiang Zhang, 2015. "Dynamic Capacity Management with General Upgrading," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1372-1389, December.
    19. Lingxiu Dong & Nils Rudi, 2004. "Who Benefits from Transshipment? Exogenous vs. Endogenous Wholesale Prices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(5), pages 645-657, May.
    20. Jiri Chod & Nils Rudi, 2005. "Resource Flexibility with Responsive Pricing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 53(3), pages 532-548, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:mathme:v:62:y:2005:i:3:p:499-514. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.