THE IMPACT OF LEARNING AND LABOR ATTRITION ON WORKER FLEXIBILITY IN DUAL RESOURCE CONSTRAINED JOB SHOPS

This study investigates the impact of worker learning, worker flexibil ity, and labor attrition on the system performance of a dual resource constrained (DRC) job-shop. The effects of learning and labor attritio n have not been previously addressed in DRC literature. Results from t he study, consistent with previous literature, show that the greatest benefits are achieved when inter-departmental worker flexibility is in crementally introduced into the system. In addition, the learning envi ronment, which depends on the initial processing time of jobs and the learning rates of workers, is shown to impact the acquisition of flexi bility. The study also shows that the impact of labor attrition on sys tem performance under certain shop conditions may be significant.