Applying supply chain optimization techniques to workforce planning problems

Abstract

The IBM Research Division has developed the Resource Capacity Planning (RCP) Optimizer to support the Workforce Management Initiative (WMI) of IBM. RCP applies supply chain management techniques to the problem of planning the needs of IBM for skilled labor in order to satisfy service engagements, such as consulting, application development, or customer support. This paper describes two RCP models and presents two approaches to solving each of them. We also describe the motivation for using one approach over another. The models are built using the Watson Implosion Technology toolkit, which consists of a supply chain model, solvers for analysis and optimization, and an Application Programming Interface (API) for developing a solution. The models that we built solve two core resource planning problems, gap/glut analysis and resource action planning. The gap/glut analysis is similar to material requirements planning (MRP), in which shortages (gaps) and excesses (gluts) of resources are determined on the basis of expected demand. The goal of the resource action planning problem is to determine what resource actions to take in order to fill the gaps and reduce the gluts. The gap/glut analysis engine is currently deployed within the IBM service organization to report gaps and gluts in personnel.

A decision support system and a mathematical model for strategic workforce planning in consultancies

“…Furthermore, most contributions to capacity planning in labour intensive firms deal with tactical decision-making, and are focused on short-term workforce capacity planning, addressing the deployment of human resources, workforce scheduling and workforce allocation problem (e.g., Brennan 2006;Dixit et al 2009;Dong et al 2008;Gresh et al 2007;Hargaden and Ryan 2015;Sungur et al 2017). Defraeye and Van Nieuwenhuyse (2016) provide a literature review on staffing and scheduling problems.…”

Resource Planning in Engineering Services Firms

“…However, a number of firms have recently attempted to address this issue. These include IBM, which has developed "OptiMatch" at its Watson Research Center, with the goal of matching people to projects in its Global Business Services organization [11]- [13] and Hewlett Packard, which has developed a new workforce planning and scheduling approach at its Palo Alto Laboratories [14]. These tools were developed to address specific business objectives such as improving the workforce assignment process.…”

A constraint-driven human resource scheduling method in software development and maintenance process

“…They set up the constraints of the scheduling and realize the human resource scheduling by using the genetic algorithms [12]. Gresh et al use the job roles, skills and skill levels to describe the human resource and give the resource scheduling and optimizing method by using priority-based resource action planning model [13]. Some researchers offer other scheduling methods by using Critical Chain methodology [14,15], networking optimization algorithm and heuristics methods [16,17], multi-agent planning and scheduling [18,19], etc.…”