Optimized skill configuration for the seru production system under an uncertain demand
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Optimized skill configuration for the seru production system under an uncertain demand Ye Wang2 · Jiafu Tang1 Accepted: 16 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Owing to its high efficiency and flexibility, the seru production system (SPS), which originated in Japan, has attracted greater attention in management and academic studies. This research focuses on optimizing the configuration for implementing the SPS under an uncertain demand. The study is aimed at formulating a robust production system capable of effectively responding to stochastic demands. The primary issues are determining the amount of skill training required and matching workers with their corresponding skills. A stochastic optimization model is developed to minimize the total expected cost of the system, while considering the costs associated with training, staff shortage, and staff surplus. A heuristic algorithm is developed to solve this problem. Experimental results indicate that, compared to the full-skilled training strategy, appropriate partial skill training (such as the long chain skill training strategy) can yield greater benefits. The total cost and amount of skill training increase with growing differences in the product mix compositions, demand fluctuations, and number of product types. Moreover, the skill level of workers increases with a decrease in training cost and an increase in staff shortage and surplus costs. Keywords Japanese cellular manufacturing · Seru production system · Worker skill configuration · Stochastic optimization
1 Introduction The seru production system (SPS), a Japanese cellular manufacturing technique, has gained popularity in Japanese manufacturing companies owing to its high efficiency and flexibil-
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Jiafu Tang [email protected] Ye Wang [email protected]
1
College of Management Science and Engineering, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China
2
School of Marketing and Logistics Management, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, China
123
Annals of Operations Research
ity (Miyake 2006; Stecke et al. 2012; Roth et al. 2016). The SPS involves converting from an assembly line with several workers to one with few workers who can assemble a component/product from start to finish. A few Japanese newspapers have also represented seru as dismantling of a conveyer belt (Shinohara 1995). When implementing the SPS, workers who originally worked on an assembly line are cross-trained and assigned to several serus. Research on machine-centered production systems has consistently focused on allocating tasks to machines (Alhadi et al. 2020; Quinton et al. 2020). However, for a human-centered production system, grouping workers into different serus is an important issue in the SPS (Kaku et al. 2009; Yu et al. 2014, 2017; Wang and Tang 2018). In this study, we aim to optimize the skill configuration of workers for implementing the SPS through an assembly line under an uncertain demand. Currently, increasing diversificat
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