Modeling worker competence to advance precast production scheduling optimization

Current precast production scheduling methodologies often have limited applicability in practice largely due to the limited consideration of human factors and interactions between the scheduling and workforce development. This study systematically integrates human factors in the form of worker competence into production scheduling. More specifically, the factors of worker learning rate, professional skills, experience in each type of operation, and operation specifications are all formulated to determine the duration of each process in precast production. A two-hierarchy scheduling optimization model (WCSO-PP) considering worker competence is proposed to synchronize the production scheduling with workforce development and to optimize the scheduling from both the short-term (time-oriented) and long-term (competence-oriented) views. Finally, the performance of the proposed model is validated using a real case study. The WCSO-PP model can achieve 74.09% and 73.01% cost savings in short-term and long-term scenarios, respectively. The developed model addresses the research gap in modeling the impact of human factors on the production, contributing to more reliable scheduling and enhancing the long-term human resource development.