Modeling and simulation of production systems to evaluate the effect of worker turnover on productivity

Abstract

Recently, with the expansion of the Japanese manufacturing industry and increase in local production overseas, recruiting and retaining local employees responsible for local production is a matter of concern because overseas factories have been exhibiting higher turnover rates than those in Japan. Productivity decreases in a manufacturing process when the process is taken over by a substitute due to a decreased worker turnover, and the work time of the process keeps increasing until the work proficiency of the substitute reaches the same level as that of the departed worker. Hence, advance production planning and product inventory management by considering the decrease in productivity due to worker turnover are essential in the manufacturing process. However, there is a paucity of studies on methods to pre-evaluate the effect of worker turnover on productivity. This study firstly clarified the effect of departers, substitutes replacing the departers, and worker substitution on productivity. Subsequently, it proposed and implemented the modeling and simulation of a production system for evaluating the effect of worker turnover on productivity. The effectiveness of the proposed simulation was verified through case studies.

Keywords

• modeling and simulation
• production system
• worker turnover
• work proficiency
• overseas production