Worker Allocation Decisions in Organizations Based on Individual Learning and Forgetting

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Do workers complement one another, one's strength aligning with another's weakness and vice versa? The implications of this question are substantial when considering the learning characteristics of a company's workforce. For some industrial tasks, slow learning produces greater productivity in the long run, and fast learning greater short-run productivity. This research project will address the above question and determine whether workers complement one another with respect to improving overall productivity in the workplace. With the emerging movement of business and industry toward shorter market lifecycles, more aggressive cross-training, flexible manufacturing, and quick-response manufacturing, worker learning and forgetting behavior has a heightened impact on company performance. This research will identify and evaluate policies for assigning workers to tasks based on such individual characteristics in order to improve efficiency and possibly even worker morale. For additional information, visit the web-site of the Productivity Measurement and Improvement (PM&I), a Laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: http://dipsy.ie.wisc.edu/.