Multi-level heterogeneous worker flexibility in a Dual Resource Constrained (DRC) job-shop

The majority of research on labour flexibility in a DRC job-shop has focused on the situation where all workers are equally trained. In practice, it is likely that workers would not be trained equally and would possess different skills. In this paper, the situation where workers receive different levels of training across the various departments as well as possessing different levels of proficiency at each task is studied. Research results suggest that, even at the same level of shop flexibility, the mixture of cross training can have a significant impact on shop performance. Indeed, results suggest that it is better to have a mix of workers with no flexibility and some workers with very high flexibility rather than all workers with equal flexibility.