Operator assignment in a labor-intensive manufacturing cell considering inter-cell manpower transfer

•An operator assignment problem is proposed in which inter-cell manpower transfer is taken into consideration.•The motivation is a practical problem in a bicycle assembly company in Taiwan.•A two phase methodology is proposed to minimize the total manpower required.•The empirical results show that there is an opportunity to save manpower when inter-cell manpower transfer is allowed.

This research deals with an operator assignment problem in which inter-cell manpower transfer is taken into consideration. A two phase methodology is proposed to minimize the total manpower required. In the first phase, integer programming is proposed to find the optimal configuration for allocation of tasks to workstations, and for each workstation one operator is assigned. The second phase uses mixed-integer programming to minimize the manpower required based on the results of the first phase. In addition, for the purpose of comparison, integer programming is also proposed for the situation where inter-cell manpower transfer is not allowed. A case study from a bicycle assembly company is introduced. The experimental results show that the proposed methodology can save manpower and improve manpower efficiency. Moreover, it also shows the promise of the method in solving practical applications.